A First Book of Bugs

‘It’s time to meet the Bugs!’ and in this lively collection we do. Simon Mole is a well established poet, performer and author for children. Here he employs his talent as a poet to introduce young readers to a wide range of insects – bugs – through verse. We meet millipedes, ants, bombardier beetles sand scorpions and more as each insect introduce itself. The verse is as varied, ranging from snappy haiku-style three liners and rhythmic text to blank verse winding across the page. His language is rich – alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia add to the colour of his vocabulary and his descriptive information. This is indeed a book with the aim of introducing Early Years and KS1 to the world of insects – and the examples are drawn from around the world. The whole is organised in four sections – Meet the Bugs, Beautiful Beasts, Working Together and Mini, Many, Mighty in which Mole adds a more instructional addendum expanding on some aspects, directing the reader on how to become a bug lover and finally celebrating the variety to be found – mini, many and might. Working with Simon Mole’s text is the artist, Adam Ming. His bold art work perfectly matches the energy of the verses. Every double-page spread is a burst of saturated colour from the background – always appropriately chosen, green for forest or grass, the dark brown of the earth – to the image of the chosen insect. These are almost all seen more than life-size – perhaps something to flag up. However, this is an enjoyable, imaginative and engaging way to introduce young readers to members of the natural world that fascinate many but can also be seen as the ‘enemy’. Make sure your young readers have the opportunity to meet them through these pages.