Bugs and Minibeasts by Christiane Engel

Bugs and Minibeasts is a fabulous, sturdy, pop up board book which introduces young children to a variety of insects and other creatures. With spring just around the corner it is the perfect time to go outside and look for all the amazing creatures that are featured in this book.

Bugs and Minibeasts introduces caterpillars, frogs, spiders, bees, ants and other creepy crawlies, it also introduces creatures that come out at night. Small blocks of text are interspersed between bold colourful images and a wonderful moving pop up in the middle of each page.

The book starts by introducing creatures that can be found in a meadow and focuses on noises that they make and their different habitats – birds nest and an owl sleeps in the beautiful pop up tree.

At the beginning of the book we are also introduced to Benjamin the Bumblebee. On every page he shares an interesting fact about the various creatures, he adds a fun interactive element to the book.

There is so much interesting information in this book. We learn about how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, how tadpoles turn into frogs and why frogs don’t need to drink, how many eyes a spider has and the number of bees needed to make a teaspoon of honey. We meet one of the strongest animals in the world (surprisingly it’s a type of beetle!) and learn about the different jobs that ants have.

Christiane’s illustrations are bold, vibrant and very busy. There are so many little details in each page. The pop ups are absolutely amazing, we love the spider and the fly catching frog. It’s also fun to find Benjamin although it wasn’t so easy on this page!!