Ant Life

Meet Anita the ant who is considered lazy but becomes a famous ant-reporter in this top-class picture book! The action begins when Anita’s twin sister, Chantal accompanies her to the colony job fair where they visit the nursery, learn about jobs available in the anthill and scout school, before Anita departs on her travels abroad. This gorgeously produced hardback is full of fantastic ant facts too and keeps the reader hooked till the very last page. Learn about how ants such as weaver ants, carpenter ants and army ants are all excellent builders. The reader meets various kinds of combat-ants e.g. the bullet ant has ‘The most painful sting in the insect world, the fiery agony lasts for 24 hours’ (p. 24).

Young children will be enthralled with the illustrations throughout the publication, especially given their infectious enthusiasm for all kinds of bugs and minibeasts. The endpapers comprise colourful and lively drawings of an array of ants and the illustrations throughout are humorous, clever and informative. The double spread showing the Anthill Job Fair is fascinating and I love the colour-coded map on page 19 indicating where ants can be found in the world. I was amazed to learn that, ‘There are about 2.5 million ants for every human (yep, there’s roughly 20 quadrillion of us’ (p.19).

This very original volume covering all sorts of ant information would delight children from three years upwards. It would be a great book for an adult/carer to share with a youngster, and it is sure to be a hit in the classroom and library. The ending is imaginative, and the author illustrator’s creativity is demonstrated on every page. Before reading this picture book I was not aware of Kellaway’s debut title, Slug Life, which has done so well in the book world. Ant Life is a clear winner in my eyes and is the perfect nature story, blending fact and fiction in a fun way.