Centipedes and Millipedes

Like most 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 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.

Centipedes and Millipedes is a fun and informative read full of hard facts and entertaining trivia. Readers seeing real centipedes and millipedes for the first time may be uncertain which is which as the two look a lot alike. Consequently, readers will appreciate Tolson’s illustration, which is accompanied by Williams’ text, that points out the differences between the two. Williams’ text also touches on the centipedes’ and millipedes’ activities, their food, and their enemies. When there are differences between the two, Williams points out the divergence. For example, “Birds and toads love to eat centipedes and millipedes”, but, to avoid being devoured, a centipede “quickly skitters away to hide beneath a nearby log or stone” while “Millipedes curl themselves up tightly to protect themselves.” Williams concludes her main text by noting:

Gardeners like centipedes and millipedes. Centipedes eat garden pests such as slugs and small insects.

Millipedes eat dead leaves and plants, removing them from the ground.

Following the book’s main text, readers are invited to “Watch millipedes up close” by “mak[ing] a home for a milliped and look[ing] after one for a week.” Williams provides a list of what readers will need in order to create a home for the millipede as well as step-by-step instructions for how to locate a millipede, construct its temporary home and provide it with food and water. She reminds readers, “After a few days, carefully put the millipede back in the wild where you found it.”

Other end matter includes a page of “More amazing facts about centipedes and millipedes”, 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. Because centipedes and millipedes are largely nocturnal and like to hide beneath things, the book’s readers may have never seen either in the wild, and so the contents of Centipedes and Millipedes may pique their interest to search them out.