Living Lights: Fireflies in Your Backyard

by Nancy Loewen, Brandon Reibeling (Illustrator)

Describes the physical characteristics, life cycle, and behavior of fireflies. Includes life cycle and activity.

Genres: Childrens, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Animals

24 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Nancy Loewen grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, surrounded by library books and cats. She's published more than 140 books for children. FOUR TO THE POLE (co-authored with polar explorer Ann Bancroft) and THE LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN were Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her WRITER'S TOOLBOX series received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers.

Nancy lives in Saint Paul and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. She has two adult children and a cat who sometimes bites her knees under the table as she writes.

Reviews

[raccoon reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dude. A GREAT nonfiction book for children as young as 3 about lightning bugs! The first time we read it, we only read a little bit on each page. Just a nugget of info. But by the 400th (joking, maybe) time we were reading every word. I highly recommend it as a summer book to help inspire your child's love of nature and the occasional late night catching lightning bugs :)

[Nur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fly'larin 2, beetle'larin 4 kanadi oluyomus, yani fireflies aslinda fly degil beetle'mis.

[Taylor Horvat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! The illustrations by Brandon Reibeling were bright and fun, appealing to grades 3 and below. The author included facts I had never even heard inside the design of the pages along with the storyline. Each page had an illustration and information about fireflies that kids can easily relate to. The story talked about catching fireflies in a jar and described the way they look in the eyes of a child, and I think many students could relate to this fun summertime activity.

I would love to have this book in my classroom to read aloud for grades 3 and below. It would be the perfect addition to a unit on bugs, because it gives the complete life cycle of the bug and also shows how kids can interact with bugs by catching the fireflies and putting them in a jar to light a room.

This book includes great vocabulary; naming different parts of the bug's body and defining them. Students will be able to learn all they need to know about a firefly because of the vocabulary and language in this book.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and bright pictures had me interested in this book. Geared towarded students in the elementary ages this book will give them plenty of information about fireflies that they might not know. Not presented in a boring fashion but with bright pictures and fun illustrations, children will learn what lightening bugs are all about. I even found myself learning a few things after 40+ years. Some information is presented in big circles scattered throughout the book making the learning short and sweet. No detailed illustrations about the bugs are presented but they do talk about their bodies, wings, etc. I read this book to a group of third graders and they really enjoyed it and they all gave it a thumbs up.

"There are more than 2,000 kinds of fireflies." "Each kind has its own pattern of flashes."

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bright, simplistic illustrations accompany this fact-book about fireflies. Minimal text will appeal to the younger set, however 'microscope' inserts highlight interesting facts about this glowing beetle.

Used for "You Light Up My Night, Firefly" Storytime: June, 2011.