Mosquito Bite

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Ready or Not - Here I Come!

    The seeker is a mosquito, Culex pipiens, and her search is a matter of life and death. She must find food - blood - to nourish the hundreds for tiny eggs inside her body.

    The children's book, Mosquito Bite, tells a tale of children encountering a mosquito while playing hide and seek. Follow the life story of a mosquito with larger-than-life electron microscope photos. Black and white photographs show the children's game of hide and seek, while astonishing micrographs show Culex mosquito and her world as seen through an electron microscopy. Zoom in for a close-up view: A blade of grass looks like a menacing field of spines. A mosquito's eye becomes a bundle of tightly packet tubes.

Awards for Mosquito Bite

Junior Library Guild Selection - 1/5/05

2005 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize Finalist - 12/1/05

2006 Orbis Pictus Honor Book for Outstanding Nonfiction - National Council of Teachers of English. 2/5/06

NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book (National Science Teachers Association) 3/7/06

Texas Bluebonnet Award Masterlist 2006-2007 - 4/1/06

Selected Reviews for Mosquito Bite

"Here children will get an engrossing glimpse of a smaller -- much smaller -- world that co-exists alongside their familiar one, as authors commingle black and white photographs of children at play around a water-filled tire, with digitally colored micrographs of a female mosquito hatching, reaching adulthood and seeking out the blood meal that will allow her to reproduce. Kunkel\'s ultra-close ups of bristly insect wings and heads, of diatoms, dead skin and red blood cells, make irresistible candy -- rendered even more fascinating by Siy\'s clear, specific descriptions and explanations." --- Kirkus Reviews 6/7/05

"Kunkel\'s color enhanced photomicrograph insets provide close-ups of mosquito anatomy, including wings, antennae and that pesky proboscis that causes problems for mammals. Show at magnifications of up to several thousand times with false color enhancement to highlight various features, the micrographs are sharply detailed and provide a wealth of scientific data. The text moves back and forth between discussion of one child\'s inevitable mosquito bit and the detailed information about the mosquito life cycle and development." --- The Horn Book 1/10/05

"Black and white photographs of an evening game of hide-and-seek are interspersed with stunning color enhanced microphotographs that record the life cycles of another \'seeker\' - a female Culex pipiens mosquito looking for a meal. Siy\'s clear, readable text describes a boy\'s strategies in avoiding his human \'seeker\' and the parallel search of Culex in the growing dusk. Kunkel\'s exceptional SEM photos provide unbelievable glimpses of red blood cells crammed in a tiny capillary, the feathery \'scales\' on a mosquito\'s wings, and the complex cutting mechanism of its proboscis." --- School Library Journal 1/1/05

"Mosquito Bite provides a fascinating look at the mosquito through a story and accompanying electron microscope photos known as photomicrographs. Electron microscopes capture the details of objects with incredible clarity, up to many thousands of times magnification. The book\'s stunning photo show body part details of the mosquito (including the \'knives that probe into the skin and antennae hairs) as well as human blood cells and flakes of dry skin. The photos and story are so engaging that kids will barely realize they are learning about a mosquito\'s life cycle." --- Chesapeake Family 9/1/05

"A child is playing hide-and-go-seek with friends one summer night, as readers are warned: "Something else is looking for the boy." That something else is a female mosquito out for blood. In this innovative book that\'s not always seamless but nonetheless riveting, the children\'s story is intertwined with a study of the common house mosquito. The end matter swarms with more information about mosquitoes and micrographs and also includes a glossary and resources for further research." --- Booklist 1/15/2005