Megan McDonald is the author of the Judy Moody books, which were New York Times bestsellers. Her picture books, including Beetle McGrady Eats Bugs!, the Reading Rainbow Book Is This a House for Hermit Crab, and Insects Are My Life, are enormously popular. She lives in Sebastopol, California.
PreS-Gr 2-Beetle McGrady yearns for adventure. She wants to explore the world like Laura Ingalls Wilder, Marco Polo, and Amelia Earhart. She gets her chance during Fun with Food Week in science class. On Monday, while creating a food chart with the rest of Table Six, Beetle decides to start her own food group and claims she would "eat an ant in a second." The other children take her up on her boast, but when her big moment arrives, she can't do it. She spits out the ant, crushing her dreams of becoming a "true pioneer." Beetle mopes through the rest of the week until Friday, when a chef visits the class and serves a selection of exotic dishes: Mexican stinkbug salsa, cricket pizza, and grasshopper tacos. Beetle then has a second chance to bravely explore the world of bugs. Bright watercolor illustrations reflect the story's zany theme and add to the humor. The writing is colorful and descriptive: "She, Beetle McGrady, set the itchy-twitchy, buggly-wuggly ant on the tip of her tongue." The endpapers give a taste of the tale to come: Beetle's 10 tips for eating bugs are listed (e.g., "Feeling tired? Forget to take your vitamins? Termites are full of iron."), while insects carrying protest signs picket along the bottom of the pages. Children will delight in this squirmy tale of audacious eating.-Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, OR Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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