Ich würde mich freuen, wenn ihr einen Blick über meine Formulierungen werfen könntet. Vielen vielen Dank im Voraus!
Ihr macht das spitze.
Introduction
In consequence of the direct connection to reality, the cross-curricular topic and the conspicuous layout of the front page, I decided to elaborate on the book “Bug Safari” and to have a look on several aspects. Important topics I want to talk about are the general layout, the illustrations, language and possible pre- and post-activities in class. Finally, I am going to present a short passage of a conversation between teacher and student out of a possible lesson.
Layout
On first sight, the book occurs as a kind of a little brochure. It is really conspicuous, that the book is directly referencing to a smartcard CD-Rom, which seems to serve as a special add-on for the media-hyped children. As the first page shows, the book is not just an ordinary book with a usual story.
Besides a green, enormous locust, one can find 3 red-colored, short notes, which have to give a first outlook about the content. These shall be amazing facts, strange creatures and awesome games. In process of my remarks, it remains to be seen weather these facts are a special part of the book or not. Some information about the publisher, the ISBN and the prize are printed on the back page of the book. Also the back page surprises with loud and colorful colors like orange and neon-green. Besides the previously mentioned smartcard, one can also see partly drawn and partly photographed kinds of insects. To tease the viewer, the author uses a simple method. He asks three questions, which nearly every child on earth wants to get answered.
How do bugs eat their prey?
How does a wasp attack its enemies?
Can you answer the insect questions and save the ant from the praying mantis?
Not to beat around the bush, I want to take a look inside the book now. Firstly I am going to say something about the illustrations.
Illustration
Altogether one can see 11 different images on front and back page. While flipping through the book one can also find a huge amount of well drawn, detailed pictures.
To make the book vivid, 2 illustrators worked on the book. Andrew Hennessey worked on the cartoon illustrations whereas Steve Roberts was responsible to draw the main ones.
The usage of the illustrations is absolutely understandable and every single picture is absolutely attractive and colorful. Additionally, nearly every illustration synchronizes with the text and support children´s understanding.
I think, the illustrations are appropriate to the age of pupils of a wide range. But I also have to mention, that the monster mantis in the middle of the book could easily frighten pupils, so the teacher have to think about showing it or not.
Another important point to speak about is the size of the images. If you use a picture book in class, it’s important to know whether the pictures are big enough for all the class to see or not. In case of this book, the teachers can put their minds at rest because the pictures are. Furthermore, the pictures impressed me, because also animals have got a human facial expression.
General remarks
To guide the young viewer through the big world of insects and bugs is the basic intention of the book. The authors of the books are Deborah Kespert and Harriet Murphy, which are famous for writing a lot of children´s books like “Animales Salvajes” or “Thomas on Track”. The book was published in 2003, has an amount of 32 pages and the prize amounts to
£
5.99. It is divided into sundry subject areas, whereas one is completed after 2 pages. Special gaps for individual entries like name, club name or individual worst bug nightmare, is another characteristic feature of the book.
Plot
At the beginning of the book, the reader is getting asked to enter his name. Furthermore, the book gives a little preview and some tasks, which the reader has to do while dealing with the text. On the third page, the topics “body parts of insects” and “insect impostors” are the first ones which the reader has to read and think about. On the following pages, the reader becomes acquainted with Eric; he is an entomologist, appears many a time to tell stories and seems to be the book´s facilitator. If one turns over, the book acquaints one with the facts about different families of insect´s, their habitat, their manner to defend themselves, and some really special kinds of insect´s. Additionally, the book says something about insect´s, which are grudgingly seen guests in our house or insect´s, which have the rainforest as their habitat. Besides, it gives answers about a lot of unsettled questions in a very easy and understandable way. Arrived at the last page of the book the reader has the task to do a quiz to show off a little of his new knowledge and to fill in a mission checklist.
It’s time to say: Mission accomplished!
Language
Altogether the book uses a language, which probably causing difficulties and is not easy to understand for a German school class. Just the short explanations besides the pictures are really hard to understand for a third or a fourth class of a primary school. But certainly the words for the kinds of the insects like caterpillar, ladybird, honey bee, head louse, mosquito or house fly definitely could be part of the lesson. Because the majority of the text is written in short notes and not in big coherent sentences, the language could be understandable in grade 6, 7 or 8. But all in all, the language in this book is written in an easy way and includes a lot of easy understandable nouns and compound words, which are easy to learn. To put a finer point on language, one can find a lot of imperative sentences like: “Then add up the points”, “Pick a weapon” or “Take an action photo”. To have a closer look on sentences, obviously the author likes interrogative clauses and really often uses exclamation marks to divert attention on important sentences.
Ich weiß, dass es ein ziemlich langer Text am Stück ist, aber anders ist es leider nicht zu managen
Ich habe bis Mittwoch zeit es zu überarbeiten, dann ist der Zug abgefahren, leider.
Aber wie gesagt, ich hoffe jemanden zu finden der mir hilft
Ist auch nicht schlimm wenn nicht der komplette Text überarbeit wird, bin über jede Art von Hilfe glücklich.
Mfg
You might want to mention the title of the book in the beginning.
which I do find very handy because then it isn't too time consuming for either the person who takes the first bash or the one that comes along with the eagle eye. 
