title: Why Bed Bugs Bite and Other Gross Facts about Bugs (Gross Me Out)
author: Jody S. Rake
description: Gr 1-4-These books will have no shortage of fans. As the titles imply, readers will be introduced to gross facts about bugs, animals, pets, and the body. Animals is the most fascinating as there are a lot of strange creatures, and the author has made lesser-known but intriguing selections. For example, readers learn that sea cucumbers squirt their intestines out their backsides as a form of defense (the intestines take two weeks to grow back) and that vultures can't sweat so they defecate on their legs to cool off. Throughout the series, readers will delight in the frequent references to gross terms. Each chapter spread contains a well-written paragraph, a "gross fact!" pullout box with additional engaging information, and one to two photos. The latter are of excellent quality and provide enhancement to the texts. Definitions appear at the bottom of the page where the word appears and in glossaries. These books will leave readers clamoring for more, so be prepared.-Stephanie Farnlacher, Trace Crossings Elementary School, Hoover, AL(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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  _Ten Detective Aces_ , January, 1948
  
  **The Belle Told**
  
  _**Snooty and Scoop, those Beantown newshounds, scented something strange
  about that**_
  
  _**landlady’s rub-out. But before they could nose out the culprit’s trail,
  their old menace,**_
  
  _**Iron Jaw, put the bite on them.**_
  
  E AND Snooty Piper come Snooty sniffs. “This flea trap has enough home one
  night from a trying
  
  wild life in it already. We have to sleep Mday’s work at the Boston crosswise
  of the bed, as it is listed to port, _Evening Star_ and find our landlady and
  the wall paper is peelin’ like a doll waiting in the hall. Mrs. Fragnagle says
  who has spent three weeks on Revere she is sorry but our rent will be three
  Beach. Of all the lousy dumps—”
  
  dollars more every week for each of us, I step on Snooty’s foot and thrust him
  beginning as of now.
  
  aside. “We’ll be glad to pay, Mrs.
  
  “You should be sittin’ on a horse an’
  
  Fragnagle,” I says sweetly. “We wouldn’t wearin’ a mask and holdin’ two 