[BOOK REVIEW] The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Title:  The Grouchy Ladybug

Author:  Eric Carle

Genre:  Animals / Bullying / Children's / Humor

Year Published: 1977

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:  HarperCollins Publishers

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+  (Bullying)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

After I had read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” I really wanted to read more books by Eric Carle.  “The Grouchy Ladybug” is definitely no exception in reading some of Eric Carle’s great works!  “The Grouchy Ladybug” is a book by Eric Carle and it is about how a grouchy ladybug tries to pick a fight with the other animals no matter how large they are.  “The Grouchy Ladybug” is truly one of the most hilarious books about the consequences of bullying that every child will definitely enjoy!

The book starts off with a friendly ladybug seeing some aphids on a leaf and wanted to have them for breakfast but then a grouchy ladybug comes in and refused to share the aphids with the friendly ladybug and challenged the friendly ladybug to a fight.  When the friendly ladybug agreed to the challenged, the grouchy ladybug suddenly back down and it goes to find a much larger animal to fight with.  After the grouchy ladybug meets up with a praying mantis, a sparrow, a skunk and other animals, it finally meets up with the biggest animal of all…

What animal does the grouchy ladybug meet up with the end?

Read the book to find out!

Seriously, this is one creative and hilarious book from the great mind of Eric Carle and both the story and the illustrations contribute greatly to this cautionary tale about bullying.  Eric Carle makes this story extremely as the grouchy ladybug is shown as your average bully as he bullies the other animals into trying to fight with it and I loved the way that the grouchy ladybug encounters one large animal and then moves on to a larger animal than the last and what was so hilarious about this was how the grouchy ladybug always stated whenever it meets an animal larger than itself:

“Oh, you’re not big enough!”

And that statement always makes me laugh because I always wondered about why the ladybug would want to pick a fight with someone who is much bigger than it is.  It was also hilarious that the moment that the ladybug notices the larger animal’s special ability to defend itself, such as the skunk using its stink and the sparrow having a sharp beak, the grouchy ladybug just immediately runs off to find another animal.  Eric Carle’s illustrations are simply beautiful and creative as the images are extremely colorful and keep the story running smoothly.  The images that really stood out the most for me were the images of the grouchy ladybug itself as it always has a grouchy look on its face and looks so small when it flies up against the larger animals.  My most favorite part of this book was whenever the grouchy ladybug meets the larger animals, the pages are sort of cut up to indicate each animal the ladybug passes and the larger the animal is, the longer the pages are.  I also loved the way that there are clocks displayed at the top of the pages of each animal the ladybug meets as it indicates the time that the ladybug shows up to meet up with the animals.

Overall, “The Grouchy Ladybug” is a truly hilarious book that teaches a thing or two about the consequences of being a bully and any child who is a huge fan of Eric Carle’s will definitely get a kick out of this book.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like: 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

• A Ferret Named Phil by William Reimer

[BOOK REVIEW] Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Title:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Author:  Bill Martin Jr.

Artist:  Eric Carle

Genre:  Animals / Colors / Children's / School

Year Published: 1967

Year Read:  2017

Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company

Series: Bill Martin's Bears #1


Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 3+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I have been an avid fan of Eric Carle’s works, especially of his well-known children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and one of the books that Eric Carle had worked on that I did not get the chance to read when I was little was “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” which was also written by Bill Martin Jr.  All in all, this was one children’s book that children should definitely check out!

Since this story is extremely short, the summary will be brief.

Basically, the plot of this book is about the reader seeing various animals comment on what other beings they are looking at that precise moment, while each animal states a variation of this quote:

 “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,

What do you see?

I see a red bird looking at me.

Red Bird, Red Bird,

What do you see?

I see a yellow duck looking at me.”

Wow!  I cannot believe that I waited this long to finally pick up this popular children’s book and it was definitely worth reading in the end!  I loved the simplistic style that Bill Martin Jr. brought to this book as the plot is basically having readers see various animals in different colors popping up in the book and commenting on other animals they have seen.  I loved the fact that each animal is a different color such as having a blue horse and a purple cat as it brings a unique spin to the storytelling of this book and I was quietly anticipating seeing what kind of animals we will see pop up in this book.  Eric Carle’s artwork is as always, a delight to look at as all the characters are rendered in paper cut outs which gives the book a creative look and I really loved the images of the different animals that show up in this book, such as the purple cat and the blue horse!

Even though there is nothing wrong with this book, I have to wonder why it was banned in the first place?  Well, it turns out that when it was banned, the person who banned the book made a mistake regarding the author of this book, who is Bill Martin Jr. and the person thought that it was the same Bill Martin who wrote the book “Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.”  Now, I have never read any of the “other” Bill Martin’s books, but this was the first instance where a book was mistakenly banned for the wrong reasons and that got me curious yet annoyed.

Overall, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” is a truly cute book for children who want to have fun with identifying animals and colors all wrapped up into one book!  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like: 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• Flotsam by David Wiesner

• No Plain Pets! by Marc Ian Barasch

REASON FOR BEING BANNED:  Was banned by the State Board of Education in Texas due to a board member accidentally mixing up the book's author Bill Martin Jr. with another author named Bill Martin who wrote "Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation."

[BOOK REVIEW] The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Title:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Author:  Eric Carle

Genre:  Food / Insects / Children's Book / Transformation

Year Published: 1969

Year Read:  2010

Publisher: Philomel Books

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 3+ (Themes of Overeating) 

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

 

I remembered always reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” when I was small and I have always loved the sweet nature of this book.  I still love this book to this very day!  “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is a popular children’s book by Eric Carle and it is about how a very hungry caterpillar starts eating everything in its path.  “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is truly a cute and extraordinary book about food that children will love for many years!

Eric Carle has certainly done a great job at both illustrating and writing this book.  What I really enjoyed about this book was Eric Carle’s illustrations as they are extremely colorful and cute.  I love the way that Eric Carle illustrated the caterpillar having a green long body and a red head and Eric Carle also did a great job at putting a surprised expression on the caterpillar’s face when it first got out of its egg.  I also love the illustrations of the caterpillar eating any food item that it comes across such as an apple and a piece of chocolate cake and you can see the cut out holes in the middle of the images of the food items indicating that the caterpillar ate through each food item.  I definitely enjoyed Eric Carle’s story of the caterpillar as it details the caterpillar’s extreme hunger whenever it ate through so many food items.  Eric Carle makes the story extremely cute and hilarious as the caterpillar literally eats twice its weight and I found myself laughing at the different types of food that the caterpillar ate.  Many children will be awed at how much food the caterpillar, even I was surprised at how much food the caterpillar ate and I was not so surprised when the caterpillar had a stomachache, which will teach children about the importance of not overeating so much.

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is definitely one of those children’s books that both children and adults will enjoy for its cute humor and colorful illustrations.  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book unless you count the caterpillar’s overeating escapade.