Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5^-8. A source of interest to children gets its due--in poetry and pictures that will leave audiences laughing. A mischievous little boy and his canine sidekick marvel at the many disgusting, delightful ways of bugs and what insects can be made to do: "Now, you may have had a hunch / If you bite bugs, they will crunch . . . But bugs have far more uses / Than for barbecues or juices." Munsinger's lively comical pictures are a good match for the lighthearted text, leavening the grossness (visualize praying mantis pizza and lice as thick as mayonnaise) without "taking the sting" out of the subject. The conclusion, which finds bugs doing some unexpected inspecting of their own, is a great reversal. --Stephanie Zvirin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Greenberg (Slugs) once again indulges a child's delight in yuckiness, this time with bugs (e.g., instead of putting slugs in a blender, this time Greenberg advises grinding stink bugs in a pepper mill). For dinner he suggests that "praying mantis pizza/ Is a culinary must," or, for the not so faint of heart, "try millipedes for dental floss,/ Feel them scrape away the moss." Like Slugs, Bugs ends with the cunning victims turning the tables, and pinning the erstwhile hero to the wall in a permanent Human Being Collection. While Greenberg's distinctive, outré humor and plot in both books are similar, Munsinger's (The Tale of Custard the Dragon) clever illustrations take a different tack, focusing the action on a single perplexed, cheerful boy and his adoring terrier. In one climactic spread, "Bugs with pincers, claws, and hair,/ Bugs much fiercer than a bear", an army of bugs in sci-fi proportion pursue the outsized grizzly who's after the boy (and the tail of his terrier) in a diagonal chase across the pages. Throughout, the boy possesses an innocence that belies the text. But by its conclusion, young bugwatchers will be wise to the grossly fun puns (though they may think twice before barbecuing spit bugs). Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4Nonsense rhymes celebrate an invasion of bugs and suggest myriad outlandish uses to which they might be put. Stringing fireflies to light up Christmas trees; making a butterfly bracelet, a beetle brooch, and an earwig nose ring; and using spider webs for tissues and millipedes for dental floss are some of the far-out ideas. Revolting foods ("Praying mantis pizza/Is a culinary must/With lots of extra maggots/And a daddy longlegs crust") should bring shudders of disgust to young readers who devour the repulsive. Whimsical watercolor drawings capture the gross humor.Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Younger) A folklike story set in China tells of Mi Fei, an artist who skillfully paints the stories of gods and heroes on paper scrolls while living simply in his village, surrounded by loving neighbors. When alarming news comes that a great dragon has awakened from its hundred-years' sleep and is destroying the countryside, Mi Fei, at the villagers' behest, takes his scrolls and paints and journeys to the dragon's mountain. There, he encounters the fiery breath and lashing tail of the terrifying creature and learns that before the dragon can return to his slumber, someone must perform three tasks, or be devoured. Mi Fei is frightened, but clever, and he uses his beloved scrolls and his love for the people of his village to successfully complete the tasks. In the end, the gigantic dragon fades away until all that remains is a small paper version of himself. In an extraordinary feat of artistry, Sabuda uses the triple-page gate-fold illustrations both to relate the story in the style of Chinese scrolls and to capture the drama of the confrontation between the gentle artist and the awe-inspiring dragon. Each picture is cut from painted tissue paper created by Sabuda and placed on a background of handmade Japanese paper. The combination of the ever-increasing size of the dragon (climaxing in a picture of his teeth framing an entire spread) and the cleverness of Mi Fei creates a strong tale with plenty of action for the story-hour audience. h.b.z. Bob Graham Queenie, One of the Family; illus. by the author (Preschool, Younger) This warm family story begins on the opening endpapers as a bantam hen stands at the edge of a soft blue lake. Baby Caitlin and her mom and dad, walking in the countryside, soon spot the hen floundering in the lake, and Dad leaps in for a daring rescue. They warm the hen and bring her home, and "that might have been the end of the story...but it wasn't!" The hen, dubbed Queenie, soon becomes one of the family, taking over the dog's basket and witnessing Caitlin's first steps. But Caitlin's mom knows Queenie has another home, so the whole family sets off to return her to a nearby farm. "That might have been the end of the story...but it wasn't." Queenie returns each morning to lay a perfect brown egg in Bruno's basket, just right for Caitlin's breakfast or for baking a birthday cake. When a new baby arrives and Caitlin forgets to collect the eggs, Bruno hatches a litter of chicks. The immensely appealing animals and people are depicted in gentle watercolors with loose, comfortable lines. Th (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.