Bloodsucking Leeches

Gr 3–6—Strong visual content and straightforward facts capture the particular appeal of animals that feed on blood. Most of the writing focuses on the blood behaviors, with details about life cycles and physical characteristics woven in fairly smoothly with broader bits of information, such as the sea lamprey's impact on freshwater fish populations. Full-page photographs offer a good variety of gruesome appeal, from vivid close-ups of a sea lamprey's teeth to vampire bats feasting on a cow's foot. Blood scenes are informative and not excessive. Effective book design supports the blood-focused themes, with white fonts against all-black backgrounds and a "Fact Bites" tidbit on each spread set on a drippy red text blob. There is some mention of the positive impacts of the parasites, including the medical value of leeches and the role of mosquitoes in the food chain.