Today’s books are all about ants – because I have an abiding fondness for these truly marvelous tiny critters. I once spent an entire month trading barley seeds with harvester ants.
Theme: ants, animal behavior, ecology
City of Leafcutter Ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions
by Amy Hevron
40 pages; ages 4-8
Neal Porter Books/ Holiday House, 2024
Below the towering trees of the dense rainforest canopy of Central America, a population the size of New York City bustles.
It is a city of leafcutter ants, and each one of them has a job to help their city thrive. There are ants that manage the city’s trash, ants that care for the youngsters, and ants that build and tunnel and dig. There are ants that gather food from the forest, ants that grow food in the city, and ants that make medicines to keep everyone healthy.
What I like about this book: I like the way this book takes readers right inside the ant city. I like the bright, bold illustrations. And I like that there’s back matter in which Amy Hevron tells more about Leafcutter ants and the important jobs ants hold in their city.
The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants
by Philip Bunting
32 pages; ages 4-8
Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024
Hey! This is an ant. And this is an ant. And this is an ant…
In fact, there is an entire page introducing ants, about ten quadrillion of them (though not all of them individually). In this book you’ll discover things ants love and things they don’t love (such as big feet coming down on top of them!). There’s an introduction to a generic ant colony and the different jobs ants do, how they talk to each other, and a lot about what ants (and people) can do to make the world a better place.
What I like about this book: I like the stylized illustrations of ants and the humor that results from the combined text and illustrations. And the scene where ants discover sprinkles – who doesn’t love sprinkles!
Beyond the Books:
Back in April I interviewed Amy for the Fourth Annual Arthropod Roundtable over on the GROG blog. You can read it here.
Follow some ants. Where are they going? Where are they coming from? Are they carrying anything, such as dead insects or seeds? These are some of the questions that inspired Amy Hevron to write City of Leafcutter Ants!
Create art inspired by ant-watching. Perhaps your questions will inspire a poem or story. Or you might paint a picture of the ants in your neighborhood. Or perhaps you’ll map out where the ants live and work…
You can find more ant activities in one of my earlier blog posts here.
We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. City of Leafcutter Ants provided by the publisher; Wonderful Wisdom of Ants provided by Blue Slip Media.
Fascinating books - thanks for sharing!
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