Review by Booklist Review
Ants are amazing! They can feel, hug, and smell with their antennae; some species farm their own food; and others literally explode when their colony is threatened. These industrious little creatures are an integral part of the food chain and are found just about everywhere on earth. Using two young children as guides, the narrative walks readers through basic ant anatomy, life cycles, and colony structures, peppered throughout with interesting facts to pique reader interest, including an impressive spread of all the things ants might eat. Just like his subjects, the author is industrious with his materials, painting all the illustrations for this book on recycled paper grocery bags. With one large panel per page, there is ample room for the large-format illustrations, which are nicely scaled for new readers, much better to see some of the many silly details. Fact-filled and just plain fun, this should appeal to both insect fans and general graphic novel readers, as well as fans of the classic Magic School Bus series.--Summer Hayes Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this fifth entry in the Giggle and Learn series of nonfiction early-reader comics (most recently, Snails Are Just My Speed, rev. 7/18), two peppy young people investigate ants amazingness. After magically shrinking down for an insects-eye view, the girl observes ants as they use their four strongest senses to communicate (by touch), listen (through their legs), sniff out food (using their antennae; scout ants bums leave a smell trail leading to food), and then share itby vomiting into one anothers mouths (Looks like theyre K.I.S.S.I.N.G! says the boy; Um says the girl). The acrylic and gouache illustrations, painted on brown paper bags and using subdued nature hues, give the childrenand the antsplenty of personality. Simple labeled diagrams depict scientific concepts such as anatomy, life cycle, colony structure, and cooperative work. One memorable page shows a thousand black ants working in concert; at the bottom of the page (and the next and the next), a line of leaf-cutter ants marches by. Facing pages close to the end of the book show What Ants Eat and What Eats Ants; with a page-turn, anteaters get their own say, including humorous speech-bubble dialogue: Why dont we ever order pizza? Were anteaters! Okay. How about pizza with extra ants? Elissa Gershowitz January/February 2020 p.108(c) Copyright 2020. 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
Ants are always moving, as this comic's insect inhabitants collectively proclaim, and McCloskey's fast-paced narrative stays true to this assertion. Two children on a playground shrink to investigate an anthill, cursorily revealing myriad ant facts. Ant anatomy, the life cycle of an ant and a colony, the structure and hierarchy of the colony, and an exploration of the four ant senses (touch, smell, hearing, and taste) are covered in one- to two-page spreads, revealing some interesting tidbits of information (e.g., ants hear with their legs). The second half of the anthill tour provides some detail on various types of ant species, such as leaf-cutter ants, trap-jaw ants, and exploding ants. An amusing (and incomplete) list titled "What Ants Eat" is followed by a superfluous reintroduction of the children, again child-sized, which closes the volume. The book's best feature is its illustrations. Painted on recycled grocery bags, the ants are detailed and expressive, making the children (one white-presenting and one black-) seem static in comparison, an impression exacerbated by the clumsy dialogue passing between the two. The facts fare better, although some spreads feel a bit crowded and organization is loose. The brevity of the information revealed may inspire independent research in older readers, which has the potential to yield some fascinating results. Somewhat disappointingly, the title has no bearing whatsoever on the text. A good-enough gateway to more detailed texts but not on par with earlier works. (Graphic informational early reader. 4-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
