Jack's Insects (ebook in PDF format)

I love old books. I love the smell of old books (as long as they're not musty) and the feel of old books, but I especially like the reading of old books, the way the author handles language, the charming illustrations, the storytelling. "Living Literature" was a natural approach for us to adopt, with its emphasis on books written by authors both knowledgeable and passionate about their subject matter. We've read an awful lot of books that fit this category, that were recommended by educators advocating Charlotte Mason's methods. However, Jack's Insects goes one better. It's actually a book that was used in Miss Mason's PNEU schools. (For more information about Charlotte Mason's educational methods, please see EHO’s More Methods Department and EHO’s Charlotte Mason Weblinks.)

I had seen Jack's Insects on reading lists and tried to get a copy, but the book was written in 1910 and is out of print. You can occasionally find a used copy, but they're rare and expensive. All this to say, the next best thing to an old book that's in good enough shape to sit down and read, is an old book that has been reprinted, especially one that includes the original illustrations. Simply Charlotte Mason offers Jack's Insects among other vintage titles as an e-book download in PDF format, as well as printed form.

Jack's Insects presents information about insects in story form, about a boy named Jack and his sister. The story is something of a fairy story, in that the children find themselves literally getting into a book about insects, and having conversations with the various creatures they find there.

The book begins with an argument against catching, killing, and mounting insects, preferring rather the study of live insects in their environment. (This point is repeated a number of times in the following chapters, as well.) You (and Jack and his sister, of course) will "travel" all around the world to meet butterflies and caterpillars, spiders, mantis and moth, grasshopper, locusts, katydid, cicada, wasp, luminous insects, water insects, bees, and ants. The book's twenty chapters span nearly 300 pages.

Some parts of the book are rather long-winded, some parts are preachy, and we left some pages, even an entire chapter (how a certain wasp lays her eggs on captive cicadas), out of our reading, preferring to summarize the information in a less vivid fashion. I had a problem with some of the attitudes in the book, especially those of the butterflies! The tone often reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.

Those thoughts aside, the book makes for an interesting study of insects. After reading (and perhaps some judicious editing), you might want to sit down with your children and a field guide to insects and write your own adventure story. Even better, while you're exploring, get out the magnifying glass and do a field study in your own yard or park, or visit a local insect exhibit.