The Web at Dragonfly Pond

by Brian Ellis

Storyteller Brian "Fox" Ellis draws from his memories of fishing with his father to tell this true tale of a fish, a frog, a dragonfly, a mosquito, and himself. The experience helped mold Fox's life-long connection with nature, and is a wonderful example of entertainment that educates.

Genres: Nature

32 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Keshia]

Well this was a surprise of a book! I’m a big fan of nonfiction books about animals and insects. I think this is a great introduction for kids into that genre because of the way it’s written, as a personalized account. You can feel like you are on the pond too. I also like how there is a way to incorporate writing practice with the prompt at the end. This would be a very nice addition to a classroom science unit or a classroom library in general. Overall, I enjoyed this little book a lot!

[Hannah]

Are we all connected? This book explores how we are connected to even the mosquitos because of the circle of life. The illustrations are very life-like and help tell the story. This is a great book to incorporate into your science classroom.

[Neely]

AR

[Anthony]

The story is based on Fox's childhood and many fishing trips with his father in which Fox slowly learned about the web of life and all its complexity. The book turned out to be the ideal level for the kids, who interrupted me with questions and comments about dragonflies, bullfrogs, "what's a cattail?" and so on. But what really felt great was the excitement in Vin's eyes when the boy in the story caught the bass; Vin is now 8, but remembers being 5 or 6 and going on a rowboat with his father and catching bass. The other great moment was when I finished the book and Vin ran upstairs to tell his father all about it; we could hear him saying "the mosquito bit the boy, then the dragonfly ate the mosquito..." He told his father the entire plot of the book in the right order. He obviously enjoyed Fox's wonderful writing and the great illustrations by Michael S. Maydak.

It's a great book; people should rush out and buy it.