Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle

Dung is a precious pile of food and drink for these beetles.

Simple science text and dramatic illustrations give a close-up view of the fascinating world of the dung beetle. When an animal lightens its load, dung beetles race to the scene. They battle over, devour, hoard, and lay their eggs in the precious poop. Dung is food, drink, and fuel for new life—as crucial to these beetles as the beetles are to many habitats, including our own.

Back matter includes instructions for finding dung beetles, fun facts, glossary, and a selected bibliography.

Cheryl Bardoe is the author of two Orbis Pictus Honor books, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age (Abrams, 2010) and Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas (Abrams, 2006), as well as The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Tale (Abrams, 2011). She lives near Hartford, Connecticut, with her family.

Alan Marks began his career illustrating for magazines and newspapers in England. His first children's book Storm, written by Kevin Crossley Holland, won the Carnegie Medal. Alan now illustrates a wide variety of subjects, from nursery rhymes to war poetry. He is the illustrator of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book A Mother’s Journey, Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle, Planet Zoo, The Spirit of the Forest, Little Lost Bat, and more. Alan lives in an old house in the Kent countryside with his wife and two daughters.