Sandra Severgnini, Dung Beetle on a Roll, CSIRO Publishing, August 2024, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781486318872
Another great CSIRO information book about dung beetles, those small creatures which do such a wonderful job in our environment. The reader is introduced to the different kinds of dung beetles: those that tunnel, those that roll and those that inhabit the perfect pile. We follow a young roller whose aim is to make the biggest and best ball so he can impress a mate. But the best of intentions don’t always succeed (this first one ended in an explosion) and he realises that slow and strong will be better.
Lots of facts are included. Dung beetles belong to the scarab family. They are tiny: between 2 to 50 mm long weighing only 10 grams. Australia has more than 500 species of native dung beetles, which have developed to deal with specific poo and wide-ranging environments, but new species have also been successfully introduced to cope with cattle dung.
I learned lots from reading this book and readers from 5-9 are sure to enjoy it as well, especially as it’s an age group which is often fascinated by poo. The teaching notes, aligned to the Australian curriculum, will help in the classroom.
Highly recommended for potential scientists and for the adults in their lives.
Reviewed by Maureen Mann