Pest fest

Julia Durango, 1967-

Book - 2007

In beauty, talent and skills, the housefly can't compete with other bugs, but as a pest he is a winner.

Saved in:

Children's Room Show me where

jE/Durango
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jE/Durango Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers c2007.
Language
English
Main Author
Julia Durango, 1967- (-)
Other Authors
Kurt Cyrus (illustrator)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
unpaged : col. ill. ; 29 cm
ISBN
9780689855696
Contents unavailable.
Review by School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2-Competition is stiff at the annual "Pest Fest" talent show. Vying for the coveted title of "Best Pest of the Year," Ladybug sings a song that can "make the Manbugs swoon," and Firefly boasts of being a "lighthouse in the sky." Housefly feels woefully inadequate. Compared to Butterfly or Honeybee, his looks "rate a zero" and he lacks the musical touch of such "expert noise creator[s]" as Cricket and Cicada. He reluctantly enters the contest, confessing, "The only thing I do all day/is hang around...pester dogs...heckle humans." His talents are praised and this "Prince of Persecution" is crowned the winner. The rhyming verses capture amusing verbal jousting among the insects. Cyrus's watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations offer stunning close-ups of the contestants, showing lush views of the streamside setting from their down-to-earth perspective. The final pages contain a creepy, crawly surprise for a snoozing fisherman who unwittingly becomes a part of the festivities. Young entomologists will go buggy for this book.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada (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

After a carpet beetle announces the annual Pest Fest talent show, Ladybug, Butterfly, et al. take turns singing their own praises. The refrains beginning ""Pest Fest! Pest Fest!"" throw off the book's rhyme scheme, but the text and the art, which shows the bugs to scale against human body parts, will enlighten readers, who will cheer for the contest's unlikely winner. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

In beauty, talent and skills, the housefly can't compete against other bugs. But as a pest, he's a winner. Jaunty verses introduce an assortment of insects portrayed many times enlarged against a background of magnified parts of a fisherman revealed on the final endpapers. The brightly colored double-page paintings provide close-ups of the carpet beetle whi is Pest Fest master of ceremonies, as well as the undersides of contenders butterfly, firefly, cricket, cicada and spider. Contestants also include a dancing ladybug, a honeybee, a grasshopper, a water strider and other unnamed insects shown from a variety of unusual perspectives. Watching them strut their stuff, the forlorn housefly is shown from many different angles and magnifications, and finally, triumphantly victorious. Readers will enjoy returning to the pictures to identify the human body parts, clothing and fishing gear in the background. The familiar rhyme scheme (think "The Walrus and the Carpenter") is handled well, and the book begs to be read aloud. Clever and appealing. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.