The Official Website of Susan Sussman

Big Friend, Little Friend: A Book About Symbiosis
Susan Sussman
Illustrated with full-color photographs
Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 0-395-49701-9 (LC89-2127)
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REVIEWS
*Named Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children by the National
Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council

“The author explains the term symbiosis simply (“The way two organisms help each other live.” ) and then present an album of animal (in two cases, plant-animal) pairs whose partnerships sustain or improve each other’s existence. Younger readers, for whom the subject will become marvelously concrete through the accompanying pictures, will find this approachable.”
—Booklist

“An introduction to the fascinating concept of coexistence in nature…. The author simply and sparingly relates how two seemingly different creatures help each other survive…this book will whet children’s appetites.”
—School Library Journal

“Many science texts for children mention symbiosis in a cursory fashion…. Here we have fourteen examples in double-page spreads of text and color photos. Though the text is brief, enough information is provided to satisfy on one level while stimulating interest in discovering more…. The book will serve both as a supplement to a science text and as a fascinating incursion into a new realm of knowledge.”
—The New Advocate

ABOUT THE BOOK
Full-color photographs illustrate fourteen of the most fascinating symbiotic relationships that have developed between pairs of living creatures. Included are the red-billed oxpecker bird which lives on the ticks and leeches that infest the African buffalo; the boxing crab, which defends itself by wearing small, poisonous anemones on its pincers—while providing transportation to new food areas for the anemone: and red ants that move the caterpillar of the large blue butterfly into their nest and feed it in return for a constant supply of honeydew. The striking photographs faithfully illustrate these amazing, but true, curiosities of nature.