A Wasp Builds a Nest: See Inside a Paper Wasp's Nest and Watch It Grow

Children (and adults, too) have become aware of the ecological importance of bees. Wasps are ecologically important, too. They pollinate plants and provide pest control by eating insects and feeding them to their young. Paper wasps construct open-celled paper nests. A mated female wasp -- the queen -- starts the nest by chewing wood fibers into a pulp to build paper layers. As soon as she has built enough of the nest, she lays some eggs which grow into young female wasps. They lay more eggs, mostly males, and these become workers whose job is to build the nest for the growing colony. It can end up being quite large. Come winter, the old queen and the workers die and the young females hibernate. In spring, they will be new queens that will build their own nest for a new wasp colony. This elegantly illustrated book explains stage by stage in easy text how a wasp nest is built. It follows by days and weeks and shows how the queen's industrious workers create a sturdy, weatherproof home. Readers see the inside of the growing nest where the eggs turn into larvae and emerge 20 days later as juveniles. As the nest gets bigger and the story progresses, the book's pages become bigger too. Cross sections show the amazing construction of the nest and how the wasps live and work. The interior pages in A Wasp Builds a Nest are shingled, starting as a partial page and getting larger as the story progresses.

About the Author :
Kate Scarborough is an author and illustrator of books for children and young adults. Previous titles include Spider's Nest, Extreme Sports and Coral Reef. Martin Camm is an illustrator specializing in animal life. He has contributed to hundreds of books, and his work is widely published by many organizations, including the United Nations, Greenpeace and The Wildlife Trusts.

Review :
Budding naturalists will find plenty to enjoy in this book that explores the process and timeline of how paper wasps build their home... Intricate illustrations invite readers to pore over the pictures and information and marvel at the process.--Paula Wittmann "Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's and Young Adult Literature" (11/23/2017 12:00:00 AM) In this beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book, young readers learn how paper wasps build their nest... A Wasp Builds a Nest is an informational picture book that includes step-cut pages for kids to flip through. Each turn of a page shows the progress that the wasp makes in building its nest. Pick up this book to help kids build knowledge about animal life.--Fats Suela "Gathering Books" (4/22/2020 12:00:00 AM) Readers are invited to experience the construction of a wasp's nest. Each shingled page reveals an inside look at the step-by-step progress of building the nest from start to finish--both the nest and the pages grow together. Readers will learn about wasp anatomy, reproduction, life cycle, and nest structure... This book is a great option for readers who are comfortable learning new vocabulary, as it provides so much information about wasps and their behavior.--Samantha D'Acunto "New York Botanical Garden Blog" (5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM) This colorful book presents a close-up view of a new wasp nest in a hollow tree... Though visually the book is tightly focused on the nest and its growing complexity, within that context, both the text and the illustrations convey a good deal of information about the life cycle of wasps, their stages of development, and the different roles played by the queen, the males, and the female workers. Each double-page spread displays the growing nest along with pictures of detail such as the pupal development. The cutaway views of the nest, the cones, and the cells are particularly effective. Each sturdy, glossy page is about one centimeter wider than the preceding one, giving the book's interior an attractive, layered look. A well-focused, informative book on wasps and their nests.--Carolyn Phelan "Booklist" (10/28/2016 12:00:00 AM) Wasps are often a source of fear and discomfort for children, but this title does a compelling job of showing wasps in a more favorable light. The book opens with a queen wasp awakening from hibernation and follows her through the creation of a colony to her eventual death in the fall. The information is presented scientifically but is also accessible for young readers, with any potentially unfamiliar words well explained. The illustrations are detailed and support the text. The view of the inside of a wasp's nest is likely new to most, and students will find it helpful to see the structures in question. The pages are shingled, starting as a quarter-page and gradually expanding in size until they fill the full dimensions of the book, which works well to mimic the growing colony depicted in the illustrations. The material emphasizes the growth of the wasps and the colony rather than what wasps do outside of the hive; however, this narrow focus keeps the text from becoming confusing for younger readers. A pleasing introduction to wasps and their life cycle, suitable for young entomology fans. Consider for most libraries.--Ellen Norton "School Library Journal" (11/21/2016 12:00:00 AM)