In this information book, detailed photographs, illustrations and vivid descriptions are used to introduce readers to some of the tiniest and weirdest monsters in the natural world. Information is organised into short chapters to help with information retrieval and the contents list can be used to select material for reading.

* Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina.

* Text type - An information book.

* Pages 30 and 31 feature a table of weird little monsters that supports readers as they recount information.

* Curriculum links - Art and design: Mother Nature, designer; Science: Habitats; Music: Animal magic - Exploring descriptive sounds.

* This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

This book is part of a book series called Collins Big Cat .

. This book is part of a reading scheme, meaning that it is a book aimed at children who are learning to read. This reading scheme has multiple levels. This reading book uses the phonics method. This approach concentrates on teaching children how to map between sounds and spellings, allowing them to decode written words into their constituent sounds. Phonics skill thus involves being able to split the written word 'cat' into the phonemes /k/, /a/, /t/, and to map from letter 'c' to phoneme /k/, from letter 'a' to phoneme /ae/ and from letter 't' to phoneme /t/. Decoding skill is useful when reading unfamiliar words which use regular spelling sequences.

There are 32 pages in this book. This book was published 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers .

Nic Bishop , an award-winning photographer, is well known for his stunning photos of the natural world. He lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Visit him at www. nicbishop. com. Collins UK has been publishing educational and informative books for almost 200 years.