Dragonfly by Aimee M. Bissonette, illustrated by Catherine Pearson

 This is another title from Albert Whitman's new nonfiction series, Imagine This. Speaking in first person, a dragonfly narrates the life of its species and their unique adaptations and abilities. Additional information is included in smaller type and more dense paragraphs. There's a final author's note and short list of resources.

The main text is simple enough to read aloud, and combined with the stunning, jewel-colored illustrations, this cries out for a dragonfly storytime! Readers will see vibrant orange dragonfly nymphs, hovering below the soft green-blue of a pond, learn about the dragonflies' significance as a sign of fresh, clean water, and see a vibrant explosion of colors and markings as the dragonflies speed across the page.

While younger children may not sit still for reading the book from beginning to end, the bold type can be easily adapted to pick out a few sentences to focus on on each page, and I can think of a myriad of accompanying activities. In appropriate weather, nature walks to look for dragonflies and observe the types of pools that can support them, showing the wide health of the environment, would be a great active project. Even more fun, although more time-consuming and potentially expensive, would be creating appropriate water habitats for these amazing creatures - or cleaning up and improving an existing pond to support them.

For indoor crafts, use the dragonflies' streamlined bodies as designs for flying airplanes or colorful bugs made out of pipe cleaners and tissue paper and suspended from wire or string. Paint jewel-toned dragonflies on scraps of plastic or acrylic, or use a computer program to mimic their flying abilities and learn simple coding.

Verdict: Brilliant illustrations and informative, adaptable text will make this an excellent addition to your elementary books on insects.

ISBN: 9780807558218; Published September 2020 by Albert Whitman; Borrowed from another library in my consortium