This is a fun book for visual-minded little ones. It shows abstract shapes scattered around a page, then reassembles them into recognizable foods that kids love. There is a simple storyline about ants carrying away the food into their ant hill, too. The colors are vibrant and trying to identify what the foods will be, when assembled, is fun. Overall, learning to recognize shapes helps children identify and organize visual information, including letter and number recognition, promoting sorting and classifying skills, and helps improve spatial relations as the shapes are combined, unassembled, and then reassembled for the ants’ party at the end!

This paperback early reader features two pals — one who loves to dig and another who loves to collect bugs. Here, they collect beetles of all shapes, sizes, and colors. They’re intriguing and interesting visually, although aside from the endnotes, which are fascinating. That’s the “easy” part. The “hard” part is agreeing how they will sort them inside some hula-hoop style rings, set on the driveway, labeling each with chalk. Eventually, they agree that all the beetles belong in one group — bugs they both love! It’s a fun book visually, and a lot of fun, especially for boys who love to see all the amazingly different beetles there are in our wondrous natural world.

This very well-made book features two pals who love to catch bugs together. Here, the simple tale introduces them both, and shoes them gathering bugs of all sorts, sizes, and colors. When it starts to rain, they come up with a plan to keep the bugs safe — to build a bug hotel! The book’s approach is a great way to include amazing scientific visuals within a narrative, which should appeal to all children who like bugs, including those who prefer fiction and those who like nonfiction. The book itself is written well, — simply yet engaging — with remarkably beautiful illustrations and printing, with top-notch binding, including a quality hardcover and dust jacket. This book, and likely the rest of the series, would be an excellent addition to any library, and would make a wonderful gift for any boy who loves to dig and find bugs, like Dirt and Bugsy!