Some Bugs

by Angela DiTerlizzi, Brendan Wenzel (Illustrator)

Overview

Get the buzz on bugs in this picture book from Angela DiTerlizzi!

Grab your magnifying glass!
Find your field guide!
And come hop, hide, swim, and glide
through this buggy backyard world!

Featuring insects including butterflies and moths, crickets and cicadas, bumblebees and beetles, this zippy rhyming exploration of backyard-bug behavior is sure to have insect enthusiasts of all ages bugging out with excitement!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442458802
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	131,791
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD200L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Angela DiTerlizzi is a mom, wife, and author who loves writing books for children. She and her husband, bestselling author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, reside with their daughter in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Jupiter, Florida.

Brendan Wenzel’s illustrations often explore the natural world and our relationship to it, and he made his picture book debut with Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

With only a few words on each colorful, busy page, DiTerlizzi and Wenzel convey a comic spectrum of insect antics…

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Harrison Smith

★ 01/13/2014
“The illustrations for this book are rendered in almost everything imaginable,” reads the note on the copyright page of this marvelous encyclopedic look at backyard entomology. What specificity is lacking in this materials citations, debut artist Wenzel more than makes up for in terms of conveying his artistic delight at depicting more than 45 bugs—from the glamorous Monarch butterfly to the leaping Lubber grasshopper, from the tiny pink aphid to the give-it-a-wide-berth scorpion. Even the most squeamish or squash-happy reader will find these critters easy to love. They live in relative harmony (although the endearingly odd Hercules beetles are spoiling for a fight) and busily go about their buggy tasks in the grass, on the wing, and around the pond with bright, eager bug eyes. “Some bugs build./ Some bugs make./ Some bugs hunt./ And some bugs take!” reads DiTerlizzi’s (Say What?) jaunty verse as an ambitious armada of ants raids a picnic basket. So vivid are Wenzel’s compositions that readers will feel transported to a summer day, when the air is musical and life is literally buzzing. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Gotham Group. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"No matter what the weather outside is actually like, your family can celebrate the arrival of spring with Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi. Fun rhymes introduce kids to insects including butterflies, cicadas, and beetles. The vibrant artwork makes the bugs look appealing rather than gross, so even squeamish young children can enjoy the story."

PARENTS Magazine

"[A] fine book for the very youngest reader. Bugs—insects and spiders alike—are endlessly fascinating, aren't they? With the simplest of text and effortless rhyme, DiTerlizzi tells a lot. . . . The collage, crayon and paint illustrations show bugs in their natural environments and are sure to bring a chuckle to the reader, no matter how old. . . . The final page reveals a marvelous surprise: The previous spreads have been close-ups of the child's backyard, which is now shown in its entirety. Delightful!"

BookPage Feature

"A big gray cat with a wary look prowls into his owner's garden and encounters a breath-taking – yet commonplace – variety of bugs. With only a few words on each colorful, busy page, DiTerlizzi and Wenzel convey a comic spectrum of insect antics, from fighting to "stinking", hunting, building and clicking. . . . Each specimen is identified by its (often remarkable) name on the book's final pages.

May 2014 New York Times Book Review Children's Bookshelf

"With minimal rhyming text, DiTerlizzi introduces very young readers to an array of insects. DiTerlizzi's text gives the book its delightful read-aloud rhythm; Wenzel’s illustrations give the book another level of kinetic energy. His bugs are colorful and playful, vibrant and comical, and always in motion, yet they retain their essential "bugness." A young entomologist would have no trouble recognizing these insects in the wild. While the bugs are not identified on the pages where they roam, the end spread provides a colorful visual glossary. Whether this bug flutters or that bug crawls, this book about bugs shines."

Library Media Connection

* "Picture book excellence, especially with a familiar topic, is no small feat. A great picture book for young readers combines familiarity with something new.

Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi (Say What?) lives up to that challenge, celebrating some of the world's most successful living creatures in rhythmic and upbeat text that bursts off the page, accompanied by Brendan Wenzel's exuberant illustrations.... This book will delight and inspire the youngest insect enthusiasts who will bug their adults to read it over and over and over again."

Shelf Awareness

"Here's a bright, breezy picture book spotlighting many varieties of bugs.... The collage-like mixed-media artwork offers vivid views of the yard and its inhabitants. Fine for reading aloud, this lively picture book encourages kids to look for wildlife in their own backyards."

March 2014 Booklist

"Visually detailed, this solid offering offers brief descriptions of a variety of bugs. Mixed-media illustrations emphasize textures and patterns as the insects creep, inch, and flutter along each page. . . . The crisp, rhyming text perfectly suits this fast-paced read-aloud. . . . DiTerlizzi demonstrates that it is a bug's world after all, and what a beautiful world indeed."

March 2014 School Library Journal

2013-12-24
A picture book that capers with joy in the buggy natural world. With minimal words cajoled into loose rhyme—they have just enough structure to hold their own within the sprawling illustrations—each page of this ebullient book introduces a different bug's proclivity ("Some bugs STING. Some bugs BITE") while a small ladybug saunters past, serving as a cohesive visual element. ("Bug" is loosely construed to include many insects and arachnids.) The mixed-media illustrations play with form and white space, while the artistic-license black-and-white eyes of all the bugs cleverly draw readers' gazes toward them, encouraging close examination. The second-to-final spread—a long shot—reveals to readers that the earlier illustrations in the book are actually close-ups of a single backyard. This visual surprise encourages the friendly accessibility of readers' own backyards as habitats to explore. Only one jarring note disturbs the joyful tone of this book, and that is the indirect permission it gives to readers to capture these critters. As there is no textual exhortation to take care and let the creatures go after examining them, adults will need to underscore this independently. Deceptively simple, with innovative illustrations and a catchy narrative, this book adeptly supplies information, a sense of accessibility, close looking and joie de vivre. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews