Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Friendly backyard creatures are the focus of the short, accessible poems in this energetically illustrated book. "I like to feed on tasty plants/ And trees that have gone rotten./ But the weirdest thing about me/ Is these pinchers on my bottom!" announces a cute, purple earwig, seen staring down at a green beetle. Elsewhere, black slugs greet a brightly painted snail as they slide along a flowerpot ("We're sticky and we're slimy/ And we don't have any bones") and flies buzz around a spider's web, the spider smiling (genuinely) at them. Though flap copy incorrectly identifies all 15 creatures as insects, Wojtowycz's color palette is contagiously happy, and Andreae's breezy rhymes beg to be read aloud. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Cheerful poetry and perky artwork celebrate creepy crawlies found in backyards. An opening verse establishes the sunny, summer-day setting and refers to the contents; a closing one summarizes the book's theme. Sandwiched between are 15 poems, each of which incorporates a fact or two about a different bug commonly known to children, and for which the verse is named, for example, "Fly," "Beetle," "Spider," "Bee." Other selections are devoted to the snail, slug, worm, earwig, centipede, stick insect, and dragonfly. When read aloud, most of the playful poems flow well, but a few have an awkward line or two. Wojtowycz's illustrations pop with bold colors as smiling bugs fly, crawl, slither, and jump along the large pages. One to two poems appear on each spread. On the final page, a night sky with Moon and stars brings the collection to a restful close. At times, wiggly or slanted lines of text add motion to the verses. Andreae's poems are lighter than those in Douglas Florian's Insectlopedia (Harcourt, 1998) and Barry Louis Polisar's Insect Soup (Rainbow Morning Music, 1999), and they have a narrower focus than David L. Harrison's Bugs: Poems About Creeping Things (Boyds Mills, 2007). The approachable style of Bushes exposes young children to the world of bugs in a nonthreatening way. This picture book would fit well into early-childhood units on insects, and the individual poems could be sprinkled into bug-themed storytimes.-Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OH (c) Copyright 2012. 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
Insects and other creepy outdoor creatures introduce themselves with only the simplest facts. Though jovial and lighthearted, the poems may come off as patronizing in their eagerness to show that bugs are worth befriending. The rhyme and meter are mostly effective, but not-quite-rhyming pairs (e.g., rotten/bottom) do occur. Invitingly bright illustrations are this collection's winning feature. (c) Copyright 2012. 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.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
(Picture book. 3-5) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
