March 8, 2014  Subscribe to SLJ  On the Radar: Top Picks from
the Editors at Junior Library Guild: Creepy Crawly Nonfiction
Orange tarantula  In October eyes are usually drawn to ghosts,
goblins, and things that go bump in the night, but reality can
be just as scary. Wasps sting the brain of a cockroach,
paralyzing it so that the predator can lay its eggs in the
zombified body. Tarantulas liquefy their prey in order to suck
up dinner with their stomach muscles. Crocodiles can grow 3000
teeth in their lifetime, but they can’t chew their food.
Detection rats use their sense of smell to sniff out explosive
land mines. Forest fire beetles can discover a conflagration
more than 20 miles away. And there’s nothing more unique than
the distinct about the shape of wombat poop.