Bothered by Bugs

by Emily Gravett

A very funny picture book story in which Pete the Badger, star of Emily Gravett's award-winning books Tidy and Too Much Stuff!, learns valuable lessons about the importance of all creatures, big and small, in maintaining the harmony of nature.

Pete the Badger is choosing a delicious recipe from his new fruit cookbook when his peace is interrupted by a teeny tiny fly. The fly becomes a swarm and soon all the animals are being bothered by bugs and insects of all kinds . . . before helping Pete to rid the forest of every single one. Disaster! Now nobody's around to clean up the poo, and come autumn, there's not a berry or a cherry to be found. But the lesson is learned, the bugs are released, and order is restored to the forest once again.

Richly detailed, wonderfully humorous illustrations will keep readers coming back for more.

Twice Kate Greenaway Medal winner Emily Gravett's delightful rhyming story is a colourful celebration of nature's equilibrium and promises fun, laughter and learning. The perfect book to read aloud.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nature

41 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2024

About the author

Emily Gravett is twice winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal and the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Bronze Award for WOLVES and LITTLE MOUSE'S BIG BOOK OF FEARS. An author/illustrator of unique talent and tremendous skill, she has a host of critically acclaimed books to her name, including BLUE CHAMELEON, WOLF WON'T BITE! and AGAIN! Emily lives in Brighton with her partner and their daughter.

Reviews

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Какво ще стане с гората без буболечките? Освен тъжно и скучно, ще стане и доста пуста.
Страхотни илюстрации и превод на Мария Донева.

[Vivone Os · Rating 5 out of 5]

Presimpatična priča u kojoj kroz dogodovštine jazavca Pometala i njegove ekipe šumskih prijatelja učimo na koji su način kukci važni za sav život na zemlji.

[Gonçalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Li este livro para crianças do 1° ano e foi muito giro vê-los interessados em todos os bichos e nas suas funções.
Uma bela obra para explicar a importância dos animais nos ecossistemas.
No fim terminamos com um jogo em que eles tinham que adivinhar o animal da imagem que eu segurava atrás deles, fazendo perguntas aos colegas. Foi muito divertido!

[Srujan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short brief book about roles of insects and how they are critical to the environment. Sweet illustrations.

[Kathryn Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pete the badger connects together a "hive mind" (get it!) of woodland creatures to capture all of the insects and bugs, but discovers that said creatures are integral in his collection of ingredients for his recipe. At the end, two subtle poo jokes later, all of the creatures (including the bugs) feast on Pete the Badger's food creations.
This book is truly adorable. The illustrations are engaging and interesting and add necessary detail to the story. This book also features rhyming words in a clever manner. I think the overall intended message of celebrating differences is conveyed, yet a deeper dive into word choice and character intentions could potentially send an unintended message. Pete the badger insinuates that all of the creatures that he dislikes should be rounded up and imprisoned. He only relents when he realizes that the creatures benefit him by doing various jobs. I feel that this is a shallow attempt at diversity and inclusion as a major theme of the story.
So yes, I think that this book would do its job in a classroom- cute characters, great illustrations, fun and interesting rhyme scheme, appropriate humor- I think that it misses the mark as a social-emotional teaching tool. The theme is under developed and it would serve better as a book focused on structure, rather than substance.

[Yoselin Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Molestos por los insectos” de Emily Gravett en colaboración con @nirvanalibrosinfantil

Les prometo que no hay nada mejor que un libro infantil. Lo he dicho y lo reafirmo. La mezcla exacta de todo lo que amo, un libro adorable que también eduque, con una dosis leve de fantasía que me hace suspirar siempre.

Cuando un tejón de nombre Dante está leyendo un libro de recetas en compañía de sus amigos, una mosca los encuentra y comienza a molestar. En represalia deciden capturar a todas las moscas en frascos.

Una vez encarrerados, optan por capturar a todos los insectos que se cruzan por su camino, pero después, cuando ya pretenden preparar sus recetas, resulta que no encuentran fruta por ningún lado!! Y todo está lleno de estiércol.

En ese momento es cuando aprenden la gran labor de los insectos, y los liberarán con una gran lección aprendida. Es el segundo libro que leo de la autora y soy su fan absoluta.

Recomendado para quien disfrute la literatura infantil y los libros ilustrados.

[LibraryKath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable! And educational! Pete the Badger is reading a recipe book, and a fly starts bothering him and his animal friends. So they capture him and all of the flies and put them in jars and bottles. Then they decide to capture all of the bugs and put them in boxes, bags, jars, containers of all sorts. But when they go to gather all of the fruit and vegetables they need to make the recipes in Pete the Badger's book... there are none! Also there is dung everywhere! The fly speaks up and tells them that it's the bugs job to pollinate plants, keep the soil healthy, process dung and lots of other things that keep fruit and vegetables growing and the world healthy. Lesson learned, the animals set all the bugs free to do their jobs.

I must also note that the recipes in this book look and sound delicious! I'm going to be finding more Pete the Badger stories to read.

[Книжни Криле · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Бъркотия с буболечки“ (изд. Жанет 45) е чудесно продължение на обичаната книжка за „Чистофайникът Пийт“, в което язовецът Пийт отново е в центъра на забавна история с важно екологично послание. Автор е Емили Гравет, а българската адаптация в рими е поверена на Мария Донева, чиито звънки и игриви стихове правят текста още по-увлекателен за малките читатели. Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле": https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/202...

[Joanne Hazeldine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. The illustrations are lovely and the pages that have different bugs in jars proved a huge conversation starter for our family. It is a child friendly look at the importance of minibeasts in our world and the jobs that they do (even though they sometimes are a little bit yucky) I plan to use this book as a read along with our autumn project looking at the harvest. A well earned 5 *

[Silvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Това е една очарователна книга - от илюстрациите (много, детайлни и забавни), през рецептите до поуката/посланието на историята. Препоръчвам на всеки за личната библиотека или за подарък. Книгата е в рими с много добър превод без да се губи звучността на разказа.

[Stella Marchione · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an educational read on how bugs help the planet and all around it. Beautiful illustrations.

[Dylan Teut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bugs are such a necessary nuisance. This is as great as her title, Tidy!

[Vanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jako simpatična slikovnica koja kroz priču pokušaja i pogreške govori o tome kako je svako i najmanje biće bitno za balans našeg ekosustava.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

there is a lot going on in this book and I think it was well done.

[Chris Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son read the Croatian edition and enjoyed the details within the book. He also came with many questions as bugs can be bothersome.

[Nora Mad. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Страхотен превод и детайлни илюстрациии с много неща за откриване и забелязване! Историята е много поучителна за мястото на буболечките в природата и живота ни. Много сладка книжка!

[Valery VW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erg leuk prentenboek (in het Nederlands gelezen vertaling van Linde van Laerhoven) op rijm dat heel goed laat zien dat ook kleine rotbeestjes ergens nuttig voor zijn.

[Chantelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet, educational book, and CUTE!!!

[Georgie HK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the rhyming pattern and the many many many bugs we meet!

[Edina L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the funny, insteresting story with good moral message about accepting diversities 💕🥰

[wasteland baby]

looove my misguided badger <3

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of animal friends were sitting in the forest enjoying a book when they started being pestered by flies. They became so bothered by the flies that they decided to trap and get rid of all the bugs. When they had finally succeeded, they were dismayed to find that they actually need the bugs. This is a fabulous story with gorgeous illustrations and it will help to show how important bugs are in our world.

[spen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look, I can't say I constitute the target market for children's books. But my partner bought this for me to cheer me up. This one approaches my ideal for the genre: an adorable low fantasy story which turns out to have a very real moral I devoutly believe and frequently pontificate about, but which few others seem to care for. The book contains a lot of gorgeous, full-colour illustrations, including dozens of different accurate storybook insect species. I sobbed.