Death Eaters: Nature's Decomposers and Scavengers by Kelly Milner Halls
Published by Millbrook Press on August 1st 2018
ISBN: 1512482005
Goodreads

There has been life on earth for over 4 billion years- so where are all the bodies? Kelly Milner Halls has given the reader the answer in this non- fiction picture book filled with fact and photographs .The answer is “recycling.” When something or someone dies it is consumed by the “death-eaters”, scavengers and decomposers – the “clean-up crew.” It is in this selection the reader gets to meet them and though it may seem gross to us- it is amazing and fascinating as to how the earth cleans itself. Ms Halls takes the reader through the five stages of death, explaining each one and introducing the bodily function,  insect or animal that is responsible for addressing each stage. In the first stage for instance, an animal freshly dead, the body begins to shut down and self digest. After about three days, animals such as wolves or hyenas eat or store the somewhat fresh corpse. Then  the, birds from crows to seagulls, insects of all sorts take their turn until nothing is left but bones. Now it is the job of the bone eating worms and finally the bacteria and fungi to leave no trace of the dead. With lots of photographs  and a text easy to understand, this is the completion of any book about insects, birds or animals as to what happens to them after they die. Use with units on nature, animals and recycling.

reviewed by Kathy George, Gray Public Library, Gray