Amazon Mary Batten Category:  Nature Publisher: Random House ISBN-10:  0375825339 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 48 Copyright: Feb. 24, 2004 ISBN-13: 9780375825330 All about carnivorous plants. Do plants really eat insects? Yes, they do. Snap! The leaves of a Venus flytrap slam shut around a fat bumblebee. There's no way for the bee to get out. The flytrap has just caught its dinner! Why do some plants eat meat? Why do they bait, snap, trick, and trap any bug they can? Come in for a closer look at the world of hungry plants. Illustrated by Paul Mirocha. Grade Level: K-4 SRA/​McGraw Hill - 2008 Corrective Reading Program A Children's Book of the Month Club selection 2004 Recommended by the National Science Teachers Association 2005  Excerpt Everything is quiet in the bog. Or almost everything. A tiny black fly buzzes around, looking for food. All of a sudden, it smells nectar, a sugary juice that plants make. The sweet smell is coming from a strange plant growing flat against the ground. The fly lands near the plant and crawls toward a leaf. Closer, closer, closer. SNAP! The leaf slams shut, squishing the fly between two green walls. The fly tries to get out but can't. The fly will never escape. This plant will eat it alive!

Booklist
This intriguing book in the Road to Reading series provides a sound introduction to one of children's favorite plants, the Venus flytrap, along with the sundew, pitcher plant, and the bladderwort--just a few of the 600 kinds of carnivorous plants that exist. The basic facts about the structure and behavior of these plants are presented, including the way they're designed and whether they're active or passive traps. The sundew, for example, has tentacles containing thousands of tiny sticky balls that glisten like dewdrops. An insect looking for a sip of nectar will get stuck and not be able to pull free. The harder it pulls the more glue the sundew makes. Then this passive trap becomes very active. The sticky tentacles slowly curl around the insect, squeezing it to death and digesting it with acids. In clear, concise language supported by detailed color illustrations, Batten and Mirocha have created an informative and fascinating first chapter book. Shelley Townsend-Hudson