Ants

Like other Crabtree series, the “What Lives in the Dirt?” books utilize two-page chapters, brief text, bolded words that are defined in a closing glossary and an index. Where these books depart from most other Crabtree books is in the medium used for illustrating the text. Readers have come to expect the pages of Crabtree books to be brimming with coloured photos; however, the four “What Lives in the Dirt?” titles employ collage illustrations provided by Hannah Tolson.

Ants is a fun and informative read full of hard facts and entertaining trivia. A Tolson illustration allows Williams to identify the parts of an ant’s body, another, the three types of ant (queen, female worker and males) and yet another, an ant’s two stomachs. The cross section of the ants’ nest is useful, but Williams’ text needed to identify the white “thing” the ant in the nest is carrying. Is it food, an ant egg, or something else? Williams’ brief text also touches on ants’ activities, their food, and their enemies. Williams concludes her main text by noting ants’ usefulness.

Ants play an important role in nature. The tunnels they make in the soil help water and oxygen reach the roots of plants and help them grow.

Ants also take seeds down tunnels. Some of these seeds sprout and grow into new plants.

Following the book’s main text, readers are invited to “Build an ant farm” so they can “[w]atch ants up close and see how they build their nests.” Williams provides a list of what readers will need in order to build the ant farm as well as step-by-step instructions for how to locate ants, construct their temporary home and provide them with food and water. She also provides tips to keep the ants safe and reminds readers: “After a week, return the ants to their nest.”

Other end matter includes a page of “More interesting facts about ants”, a glossary and an index.

Tolson’s cartoon-like collages definitely give the books in the “What Lives in the Dirt?” series a more informal, almost storybook feel, one that will attract the younger end of the series’ audience range. Ants is a solid introduction to an insect that we can find in our environment – if we just look.