Bibliographical citation: Montgomery, S.; with photographs by Nic Bishop (2004). The Tarantula Scientist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 80 pages. ISBN: 9780618147991.
Awards: Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor (2005), SLJ Best Books for Children (2004).
Author's website: http://symontgomery.com/, http://nicbishop.com/
Annotation: This journey follows Sam Marshall, Tarantula Scientist, to the rainforests in French Guiana. Here Sam searches for and observes various tarantula spiders in their habitats before returning with his findings, and a few spiders, to his spider lab in Ohio.
Personal Reaction: The large color photographs that accompany the text are so lifelike as to make a reader who is not a fan of spiders a bit uneasy. Once you get past that, however, it is easy to become engrossed in Sam Marshall's study of these unusual creatures since his enthusiasm is contagious. The first half of the book follows Sam on his field work through the rainforests of French Guiana, where he seeks out spider burrows. The first introduction is to the largest spider on earth, the Goliath birdeater tarantula. Sam spends a lot of time observing and attempting to coax a variety of spiders out of their burrows, while providing readers with facts on the spiders' habitat, behavior, mating, and eating habits. The second half of the book focuses on Sam's return to his spider lab at Hiram College in Ohio. Here we learn about the many studies and experiments involving tarantulas that are being conducted not only by Sam Marshall, but by his students as well. Some of the information that they are discovering about these spiders is previously unknown and/or undocumented.
These spiders have a lot to tell us considering that they have been around for approximately 150 million years. Amazingly enough, despite their long residency, there is still much that we don't know about them. Sam Marshall's goal is to learn more and educate people on these spiders so that they can be taught to respect them. This study is not only an exciting and interesting read, but its insight into the lives of these large spiders provides an awareness and reverence for these creatures that I didn't have before.
Front/Back Matter: Map showing the area of the study, Spider Stats, Spider Speak, How this Book Was Researched, Special Acknowledgements, Selected Bibliography, Spiders on the Web, If you Visit French Guiana, If You Buy a Tarantula, Index.
*Bibliographical citation information, award information, as well as image retrieved from www.bwibooks.com (Titletales)
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