How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly ?, Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (Houghton Mifflin, $ 16, ages 4-8 )
As a child, Steve Jenkins always dreamed of being a scientist. After all, his father was a physics professor and astronomer, and Jenkins spent much of his childhood immersed in the natural world, making notes and drawings of his discoveries.
However, when Jenkins entered North Carolina State University in Raleigh he decided to switch his major from science to art.
“There’s a lot of science and engineering there, but they also have a design school,” Jenkins says. “Looking at the two groups of students, it seemed like the design students were having a lot more fun !”
It turned out to be a fortuitous move. By majoring in design, Jenkins not only got a new career path in graphic design, but he also met Robin Page, another NCS design student who would become his wife.
Years later, Jenkins, now 56, has forged yet another career, combining art and science. Working alone or with his wife, Jenkins has carved out a niche in the world of children’s books, creating awardwinning nonfiction books that blend graphic design with interesting information about the natural world. The books are entertaining and educational, and are popular with kids and adults.
Jenkins and Page’s newest book is How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly ?, which details the many ways that animals attempt to survive.
In the section titled “How many ways can you snare a fish ?,” readers will learn that diving beetles seize fish underwater using their legs, while salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs are prey for grizzly bears, who stand in the rapids and grab the fish as they leap from the water.
As for the flies featured in the book’s title, Jenkins and Page note that a Jackson’s chameleon, with its long, sticky tongue, “can snap up a fly in less time than it takes you to blink.” Meanwhile, an assassin bug stalks flies and then spears them with its sharp “beak.”
But the book isn’t just a collection of fascinating facts. Jenkins’ attention-grabbing collage illustrations, colorful and full of texture, make this book a treat for the eyes. Look particularly for Jenkins’ illustration of a hole being dug by an animal — it seems to be happening before the readers’ eyes.
His larger-than-life illustration of a fly, meanwhile, will give readers shudders, even as they marvel at the details Jenkins shows of the insect’s wings and body. Other illustrations introduce readers to a range of little-known animals, from a tailorbird that sews the edges of a leaf together to make a pouch for her eggs to a burrowing parrot that uses its beak to dig nesting holes in cliffs.
How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly ?, like most of Jenkins and Page’s books, can be read on several levels. For the youngest children, parents can focus on the basic text and the illustrations, while older readers might be quite interested in learning more about each animal from the additional information provided at the back of the book.
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