Bug Life

August 1, 2013
Striking illustrations, done from an insect's perspective, are the background for this conversational description of a ladybug's life. Almost photographic in their detail, hyper-realistic close-up illustrations, created in blurred watercolor layers, accompany an informal introduction to the seven-spotted ladybug, the most common form in Europe and the state insect for several U.S. states, though it is an introduced species here. One spread shows the beetle's "paper-thin back wings" and raised "fiery-red front wings, ready for takeoff." In another, she chomps on "sugary aphid bugs." In the foreground, more aphids wait on a thorny stem. Occasional factoids appear on the spreads in ladybug-egg-shaped sidebars. The text covers the insect's behavior, its feeding habits, its armor, wing structure and foul flavor, its defenses, usefulness and winter dormancy. Several pages show egg laying, larva and pupa development and the emergence of golden new ladybugs (the red color and spots develop later). Their one-year lifespan is mentioned only in a sidebar. First published in England as a companion to the author and illustrator's Bee Life (2013, not reviewed), this title, like many European imports, includes no sources for its facts and no suggestions for further reading. But the presentation is impressive. Combining relaxed storytelling and larger-than-life images, this is an appealing natural history read-aloud. (Informational picture book. 4-7)

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July 1, 2014
Behavior, defense mechanisms, and life stages--from egg through larva, pupa, and adult beetle--are accurately explained as readers follow a single ladybug. Though information is clear, the poetic narration personifies the insect ("the brave little beetle"), and almost always uses the diminutive "little" before the noun. Bright, zoomed-in digital illustrations of a small world in large scale follow the text closely.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)