Cathy Camper

Cathy Camper has published articles and stories for children and adults in Cricket, Wired, Cicada, and Giant Robot. She worked for many years as a librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library, and has reviewed books for School Library Journal and Kirkus. It was through reviewing children's dinosaur books that she got interested in prehistoric bugs. She also coedits a tiny magazine about candy called Sugar Needle, and likes to make seed art for the Minnesota State Fair, and robots out of junk.

A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Cathy currently lives on the West Coast. Although she loves fossils and getting surprises in the mail, please don't send her any real gigantic bugs!

Bugs Before Time:
Prehistoric Insects and Their Relatives
illus. by Steve Kirk
Simon & Schuster, 2002
Ages 9-12, ISBN 978-0-689-82092-2

Sea scorpions as big as bathtubs, spiders that could palm a basketball, a millipede the size of your mom! Big bad bugs are coming your way!

Did you know that for every pound of people on earth, there are 300 pounds of insects? Or that millions of years ago some of these bugs actually weighed that much? Well, during prehistoric times, before dinosaurs ruled the earth, bugs did; and just like today the seas, skies, and lands were covered by these creepy-crawlers. There were dragonflies with wings that reached a yard across in length, and millipedes that grew to over six feet long! But what is even more fascinating is the fact that all of these creatures in some form or another learned to adapt and survive to become the insects and sea beasts of today.

In this fully illustrated picture book, readers will be captivated by the detailed information of prehistoric insects, arachnids, and their relatives. Chock-full of facts about fossil formation, insect evolution, flight theories, and geologic time, Bugs Before Time will mesmerize entomologists of all ages. Author Cathy Camper's absorbing text, and artist Steve Kirk's extraordinary paintings combine to re-create a world where giants reigned.