Bugs

by David Greenberg

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Greenberg (Slugs) once again indulges a child's delight in yuckiness, this time with bugs (e.g., instead of putting slugs in a blender, this time Greenberg advises grinding stink bugs in a pepper mill). For dinner he suggests that "praying mantis pizza/ Is a culinary must," or, for the not so faint of heart, "try millipedes for dental floss,/ Feel them scrape away the moss." Like Slugs, Bugs ends with the cunning victims turning the tables, and pinning the erstwhile hero to the wall in a permanent Human Being Collection. While Greenberg's distinctive, outre humor and plot in both books are similar, Munsinger's (The Tale of Custard the Dragon) clever illustrations take a different tack, focusing the action on a single perplexed, cheerful boy and his adoring terrier. In one climactic spread, "Bugs with pincers, claws, and hair,/ Bugs much fiercer than a bear", an army of bugs in sci-fi proportion pursue the outsized grizzly who's after the boy (and the tail of his terrier) in a diagonal chase across the pages. Throughout, the boy possesses an innocence that belies the text. But by its conclusion, young bugwatchers will be wise to the grossly fun puns (though they may think twice before barbecuing spit bugs). Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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School Library Journal :
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K-Gr 4--Nonsense rhymes celebrate an invasion of bugs and suggest myriad outlandish uses to which they might be put. Stringing fireflies to light up Christmas trees; making a butterfly bracelet, a beetle brooch, and an earwig nose ring; and using spider webs for tissues and millipedes for dental floss are some of the far-out ideas. Revolting foods ("Praying mantis pizza/Is a culinary must/With lots of extra maggots/And a daddy longlegs crust") should bring shudders of disgust to young readers who devour the repulsive. Whimsical watercolor drawings capture the gross humor.
Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Review
: Booklist :
From Booklist, Sept. 1997, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Ages 5-8. A source of interest to children gets its due--in poetry and pictures that will leave audiences laughing. A mischievous little boy and his canine sidekick marvel at the many disgusting, delightful ways of bugs and what insects can be made to do: "Now, you may have had a hunch / If you bite bugs, they will crunch . . . But bugs have far more uses / Than for barbecues or juices." Munsinger's lively comical pictures are a good match for the lighthearted text, leavening the grossness (visualize praying mantis pizza and lice as thick as mayonnaise) without "taking the sting" out of the subject. The conclusion, which finds bugs doing some unexpected inspecting of their own, is a great reversal. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1997)¾: Stephanie Zvirin.
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