Review by Booklist Review
Do stink bugs take baths? and other humorous questions introduce 11 insects with amusing names, from robber flies to water boatmen to kissing bugs. Comic illustrations, such as a firefly roasting a marshmallow and a book louse scanning the shelves of a library, add to the lighter tone. As young readers turn the page, they learn the truth in a sentence or two. For instance, even though bedbugs don't wear pajamas, they can survive cold temperatures by lowering the freezing point of the fluids in their bodies. A more realistic, albeit still enlarged, rendition of the insect accompanies the explanation. But what about the original question posed in the book's title: Do doodlebugs doodle? In a clever twist, the final spread answers with Yes!!! and explains that when these larvae of antlions move across sand, they leave winding trails that look like doodles. A concluding section provides more-detailed information, including the physical properties, additional facts, and a real-life photo of all the featured insects. A fun read before Douglas Florian's even wittier Insectlopedia (1998).--Leeper, Angela Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Funny speculation is made about the common names of 11 insects, after which a few facts are offered. The text is playful, introducing each insect with a question in bold, dark print, beginning with, "Do dragonflies breathe fire?" After the colorful, cartoonish artwork expands on the theme with visions of treasure chests in sand and children dressed as pirates and knights battling fire-equipped dragonflies, the page turn reveals a larger image of the insect along with a definitive "No!" This is followed by information about the unique way a dragonfly catches its prey. The text is pleasingly consistent in this approach, and it offers a nice little surprise with the final bug--plus additional, accessible notes about insects. Unfortunately, the art is less successful than the text. While care was given to different skin and eye colors for the many children pictured with the bugs, there is an awkwardness in the renderings of the children's movements, penciled noses, and frequently open, often toothless mouths. Composition and layout tend to produce an uncomfortable feeling of crowding, which in turn makes it hard to linger on any one page. It's great to have large, fantastical bugs, flies, and beetles on the pages with whimsical questions, but the perspective on the pages that offer factual text makes it hard to know insects' true relative sizes.Overall, clever: entomology via etymology. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
