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Buzzkill: A Wild Wander Through the Weird and Threatened World of Bugs
The praying mantis is the only animal on Earth with one ear―and it’s in the middle of its chest. Aphids are born pregnant. Moths can’t fly during an earthquake. If you didn’t know these things, you soon will. Packed full of jaw-dropping facts, Buzzkill presents the big picture on bugs. You might think ew, gross. Insects are icky. Or scary. Or dangerous. They can be. But there’s so much more you need to know.
Insects play a critical role on our planet, from sustenance to pollination to medicines and more. Brenna Maloney tackles both the wacky and weird, as well as threats to insects and their habitats, their possible extinction, and ways that everyday people, like you, can prevent their decline.
Find out what all the buzz is about!
Godwin Books
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD TITLE
Insects play a critical role on our planet, from sustenance to pollination to medicines and more. Brenna Maloney tackles both the wacky and weird, as well as threats to insects and their habitats, their possible extinction, and ways that everyday people, like you, can prevent their decline.
Find out what all the buzz is about!
Godwin Books
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD TITLE
384 pages, Hardcover
Published October 11, 2022
16 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
August 23, 2022
My phobia of bugs has always been with me and I still get shivers thinking about them crawling on me or buzzing near my ears.
I love learning about nature and science and I have passed this love onto my 10 year old also.
He loves to learn and I hoped this book would be a fun summer reading addition. It turned out it was the best book for both of us!!
Loaded with information and pictures, this was a great tool to help us identify many creepy things. He gained solid basic biology knowledge and I gained less fear.
Win-Win for all!!
I love learning about nature and science and I have passed this love onto my 10 year old also.
He loves to learn and I hoped this book would be a fun summer reading addition. It turned out it was the best book for both of us!!
Loaded with information and pictures, this was a great tool to help us identify many creepy things. He gained solid basic biology knowledge and I gained less fear.
Win-Win for all!!
January 17, 2023
Incredibly fascinating book on insects and their impact on the world. I learned an incredible amount of information, some of which was quite disgusting, but for the most part helped me understand the role of insects in this world. My only complaint about the book was that it was very stream of conscious. But I appreciated that the book was understandable to read instead being overly bogged down in scientific terminology.
October 10, 2022
Some books demand to be shared – the stories are just too good, the facts just too amazing. Buzzkill is one of those wild rides, full of mind-blowing information – a person has 650 muscles, a caterpillar has 4,000; there is an insect that hitchhikes on the face of a butterfly; the cheetah has nothing on the tiger beetle, which can run so fast it temporarily goes blind. The chapter on the hows and whys of metamorphosis will never leave you, ditto the one on all the murders solved by insect involvement. But despite her enthusiastic and irreverent tone, Maloney doesn’t just list wacky facts – she makes a compelling case for the crucial importance of bugs in our ecosystem and includes a whole chapter that encourages readers to do their part and get involved in learning about, appreciating and protecting the insects upon which our life on earth depends. Backmatter includes multiple organizations and citizen scientist links, a suggested reading list and selected sources.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for an Advance Reader's copy in return for an unbiased review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for an Advance Reader's copy in return for an unbiased review.
January 25, 2023
DNF at 34%. While the subject matter is interesting, the writing style is too annoying. The author tries to be conversational, but does it work a mixture of dumbing down her content at times and occasionally condescending toward the reader. It's about 1/3 actually interesting content with no gross undertones, 1/3 interesting content with gross undertones, and 1/3 incongruent random thoughts. I wanted to love this nerdy fun sounding book, but instead I almost can't stand it.
October 4, 2022
Buzzkill: A Wild Wander Through the Weird and Threatened World of Bugs, written by Brenna Maloney and illustrated by Dave Mottram, is currently scheduled for release on October 11 2022. The praying mantis is the only animal on Earth with one ear, and it’s in the middle of its chest. Aphids are born pregnant. Moths can’t fly during an earthquake. If you didn’t know these things, you soon will. Packed full of jaw-dropping facts, Buzzkill presents the big picture on bugs. You might think ew, gross. Insects are icky. Or scary. Or dangerous. They can be. But there’s so much more you need to know. Insects play a critical role on our planet, from sustenance to pollination to medicines and more. Brenna Maloney tackles both the wacky and weird, as well as threats to insects and their habitats, their possible extinction, and ways that everyday people, like you, can prevent their decline.
Buzzkill is very well written. The author has a conversational tone, with some sardonic humor through out the book, to keep readers engaged and interested. I do think that this book would be best suited for the middle school and older crowd, but younger readers that are interested in the topic will likely enjoy the read as well. I have read up a bit on creepy crawlies, and I have to admit that even though some of the facts in the book were things I knew, I still learned a great deal of information, and more importantly was able to put what I already knew and what I just learned into a larger context for a bigger picture. I loved the occasional illustrations in the book, and I thought they were charming and fun. I only wish that some of the more unusual insects had illustrations as well rather than suggestions to go Google them on my own. Some readers will not have a phone or computer handy to do that while they are reading for a variety of reasons. That being said, I greatly enjoyed the read and think a number of children, teens, and yes adults will find an education and entertainment from this read.
Buzzkill is an entertaining and informative read that will teach every reader a little something about insects.
Buzzkill is very well written. The author has a conversational tone, with some sardonic humor through out the book, to keep readers engaged and interested. I do think that this book would be best suited for the middle school and older crowd, but younger readers that are interested in the topic will likely enjoy the read as well. I have read up a bit on creepy crawlies, and I have to admit that even though some of the facts in the book were things I knew, I still learned a great deal of information, and more importantly was able to put what I already knew and what I just learned into a larger context for a bigger picture. I loved the occasional illustrations in the book, and I thought they were charming and fun. I only wish that some of the more unusual insects had illustrations as well rather than suggestions to go Google them on my own. Some readers will not have a phone or computer handy to do that while they are reading for a variety of reasons. That being said, I greatly enjoyed the read and think a number of children, teens, and yes adults will find an education and entertainment from this read.
Buzzkill is an entertaining and informative read that will teach every reader a little something about insects.
January 19, 2024
“Nature, man! Nature is freaking awesome.”
The first chapter is an overwhelming infodump obviously designed to weed out the unserious. After that, a flow and focus develops with pollinators, although this chapter lures the reader into believing they are still reading something mostly informational, with occasional nods to things that are funny.
The next two chapters should eliminate any reader operating without a sense of humor.
By the time I got to the halfway point, I was so impressed by this author for successfully creating a book for the explicit purpose of entrapping wildly curious, earnest, and quirky folks. I almost didn’t make it: the first chapter was challenging, but curiosity won out. And as the chapters progressed, I became increasingly entranced.
My complaints include several times where she talks about bugs being ugly or when she refers to maggots being used to clean wounds as SUPER GROSS. No. This is fascinating, cool, cool shit. People might think it sounds gross. But it is sooo cool. There is no need to pretend that you think any of this is disgusting.
I think the book as a whole would have been more welcoming if she had shifted the info dump away from the beginning, but that’s just a personal preference. I *liked* the wash of information, I was just not prepared for it to come at me so fast.
This author WORKS to connect the reader to insects. She comes at this from every direction: cool facts, how insects help grow the food we eat, how they are the food we eat, insects in music and dance, insects inspiring robots and engineers, insects in medicine. What starts out as insect facts becomes all the ways we rely on insects and all the ways they inspire us. It all wraps up with a variety of ways we can help our world insect populations.
Contents include: insects as food, a surprise Sandra Bullock/Practical Magic reference, a mummified baby, a very detailed description of human decomposition and a lot of decomposition in general, intriguing careers in entomology, hissing cockroaches and praying mantises as pets, and more.
In short, know your audience when recommending this.
The first chapter is an overwhelming infodump obviously designed to weed out the unserious. After that, a flow and focus develops with pollinators, although this chapter lures the reader into believing they are still reading something mostly informational, with occasional nods to things that are funny.
The next two chapters should eliminate any reader operating without a sense of humor.
By the time I got to the halfway point, I was so impressed by this author for successfully creating a book for the explicit purpose of entrapping wildly curious, earnest, and quirky folks. I almost didn’t make it: the first chapter was challenging, but curiosity won out. And as the chapters progressed, I became increasingly entranced.
My complaints include several times where she talks about bugs being ugly or when she refers to maggots being used to clean wounds as SUPER GROSS. No. This is fascinating, cool, cool shit. People might think it sounds gross. But it is sooo cool. There is no need to pretend that you think any of this is disgusting.
I think the book as a whole would have been more welcoming if she had shifted the info dump away from the beginning, but that’s just a personal preference. I *liked* the wash of information, I was just not prepared for it to come at me so fast.
This author WORKS to connect the reader to insects. She comes at this from every direction: cool facts, how insects help grow the food we eat, how they are the food we eat, insects in music and dance, insects inspiring robots and engineers, insects in medicine. What starts out as insect facts becomes all the ways we rely on insects and all the ways they inspire us. It all wraps up with a variety of ways we can help our world insect populations.
Contents include: insects as food, a surprise Sandra Bullock/Practical Magic reference, a mummified baby, a very detailed description of human decomposition and a lot of decomposition in general, intriguing careers in entomology, hissing cockroaches and praying mantises as pets, and more.
In short, know your audience when recommending this.
January 28, 2023
Amazing bug book that is encyclopedic in topic, not format, and also very quirky! Brenna Maloney has a distinctive voice that can be hilarious! Maybe she needed a good editor (it is LONG and HEAVY and more pictures are needed), but her voice is so fun, I am not sure.
Covers the insect apocalypse and what we can do about it, but the most memorable scenes are when she orders bugs in the mail and tends to them in her house - ant farms, praying mantises, Madagascar hissing cockroaches!! Her kids and her husband are truly long-suffering.
I wanted more of an arc; this reads like she just wrote about each chapter heading independently, but what a delightful, crazy ride she provides! In the end though, the message of the book is that bugs are cool and mostly critical for our life (sometimes also threatening) and as a world, we've got to do better for them. Her suggestions on what to do were not as robust as the writing about the young mantises escaping into the garden...Enjoy this one!
Covers the insect apocalypse and what we can do about it, but the most memorable scenes are when she orders bugs in the mail and tends to them in her house - ant farms, praying mantises, Madagascar hissing cockroaches!! Her kids and her husband are truly long-suffering.
I wanted more of an arc; this reads like she just wrote about each chapter heading independently, but what a delightful, crazy ride she provides! In the end though, the message of the book is that bugs are cool and mostly critical for our life (sometimes also threatening) and as a world, we've got to do better for them. Her suggestions on what to do were not as robust as the writing about the young mantises escaping into the garden...Enjoy this one!
January 3, 2023
The information is great, but I often found the tone off-putting. I read a lot of non-children's nature books. On the one hand, there's really no difference between some of them (like the most recent one I read, Alexandra Horowitz's The Year of the Puppy) and this book (especially later chapters like 8 and 9). On the other hand, it feels like children's publishing encourages snark in non-fiction, perhaps in the belief it makes "dry" material appealing. I think this is wrong on both fronts. The material is great, and Maloney clearly thinks so too. And the best science books for adults have voices that are engaging, funny, and clear, as this book is at its best when it isn't being, well, juvenile. I think this would have been a better book and just as appealing to children if it weren't written "for children."
May 24, 2022
Summer is starting in the northern hemisphere, so all the creepy crawlies are making an appearance. While I'm still the first one to do everything in my power to smash every mosquito on the planet, I have to say that Buzzkill by Brenna Maloney has given me a new appreciation for our six-legged friends.
Buzzkill is aimed at a middle grade/high school audience, but people of all ages can enjoy Maloney's writing style and the fascinating world she describes. After all, there wouldn't be much of a world without insects!
QotD: Do you have a favorite insect? I love bees.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: October 11, 2022
Buzzkill is aimed at a middle grade/high school audience, but people of all ages can enjoy Maloney's writing style and the fascinating world she describes. After all, there wouldn't be much of a world without insects!
QotD: Do you have a favorite insect? I love bees.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: October 11, 2022
Read
December 24, 2025Pick your Poison-Opening a can of worms-book about creepy crawliesZTons of creepy bug info and awareness of the fundamentals of the need for the study and protection of our environment . Insects are a basic form in the life cycle of earth. China has a cockroach farm. Tons of roaches eat over 60 tons of food waste a day and after their life cycle ends they are ground and used in feed as they are rich in protein., Also, this book 'explains' the 10 miracles in the bible. This book is a lot to take in and in the end I was unsettled about the growing extinction of insects that we need for the cycle of life.
Also for Curtis Library Summer Reading Challenge
Also for Curtis Library Summer Reading Challenge
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2022
My phobia of bugs has always been with me and I still get shivers thinking about them crawling on me or buzzing near my ears.
I love learning about nature and science and I have passed this love onto my 10 year old also.
He loves to learn and I hoped this book would be a fun summer reading addition. It turned out it was the best book for both of us!!
Loaded with information and pictures, this was a great tool to help us identify many creepy things. He gained solid basic biology knowledge and I gained less fear.
Win-Win for all!!
I love learning about nature and science and I have passed this love onto my 10 year old also.
He loves to learn and I hoped this book would be a fun summer reading addition. It turned out it was the best book for both of us!!
Loaded with information and pictures, this was a great tool to help us identify many creepy things. He gained solid basic biology knowledge and I gained less fear.
Win-Win for all!!
October 5, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Children’s for the ARC of this!
This conversational, snarky, fun to read insect book was good for all ages of insect lover. While it says it’s for ages 10-14, I think a strong younger reader (or one being read to) could definitely tackle this, but it didn’t read as particularly young either and an older teen or adult could easily read it and not notice it was a YA book. I’ve read a couple non-fiction books about insects and extinction lately and this had a good mix of facts I was familiar with, new ideas, and anecdotes.
This conversational, snarky, fun to read insect book was good for all ages of insect lover. While it says it’s for ages 10-14, I think a strong younger reader (or one being read to) could definitely tackle this, but it didn’t read as particularly young either and an older teen or adult could easily read it and not notice it was a YA book. I’ve read a couple non-fiction books about insects and extinction lately and this had a good mix of facts I was familiar with, new ideas, and anecdotes.
January 20, 2023
This was a fun book, where you tag along as an enthusiastic amatuer tells you all about bugs, accompanying her as she relates her research, calls experts and inflicts experiential learning on her family (bringing home a deer skull to examine decomposition, sending away for pet ants, praying mantises, hissing cockroaches). I especially enjoyed this memoir aspect, although I'm not sure I'd appreciate it as much as a kid, where it wouldn't seem as natural to be friends with a grown lady.
Anyway, now I have a lot of facts about bugs to press onto everyone around me!
Anyway, now I have a lot of facts about bugs to press onto everyone around me!
September 7, 2023
If you love insects, this book is for you. If you are a curious person, this book is also for you. Nature lover? Yep, you should read this book. Someone looking for a read by an author who can really draw you in? Give this book a read! I was drawn in by the cover and title, and once I started reading, I didn’t want to stop. Each chapter is engaging and informative, and the author draws you further into the world of bugs in a personal, often funny way. You’ll learn so much and be inspired by this book!
November 10, 2023
DNF on page 18. Okay, that's not very far, but I couldn't get past Maloney's voice. While it's clear she cares about insects, and also wants her readers to care too, I was put off almost right away by her separating the insects (six legs, three body segments) from the "icky" arachnids and myriapods (essentially telling her readers it's ok, you can still hate THOSE). The snarky asides, which I'm usually all about, just didn't feel right here. I am a science communicator and I wouldn't recommend this to others either.
March 13, 2023
Target audience is YA but don't let that deter you, this is a fascinating and fact filled book that touches on insects and their world as much as it can.
Also does a great job fitting them into the bigger picture, and emphasizing how important they are to the function of the planet.
Some authors feel like they are trying to hard when they add humor to their works, but Maloney is genuinely funny and a joy to read.
Highly recommended.
Also does a great job fitting them into the bigger picture, and emphasizing how important they are to the function of the planet.
Some authors feel like they are trying to hard when they add humor to their works, but Maloney is genuinely funny and a joy to read.
Highly recommended.
June 24, 2023
This book is excellent; it’s just too long. I learned a massive number of cool factlets, but I’m not really sure I learned anything big or left changed in any way. As such, I’m not sure that it works for its target audience. The group that would take something big from it is likely the group who would lose interest because of the repetition and frequent detours. It just needs a stronger editorial hand.
July 6, 2023
I used to hate bugs until I read this book. I was enthralled. I learned so much about incredible insects. And I came to appreciate how critical it is for us to protect them from impending extinction. The truly amazing thing is that Maloney writes with such heart and humor and seems to be addressing the reader so directly that I didn't even know that I was learning. And somehow, she made me fall in love with bugs. A MUST read!
Read
August 27, 2023I wanted to like this book. I love insects, and I did learn some things that I didn't know before, which is really neat. But the author's style wasn't really up my alley. "Conversational" author straight addressing the reader has never been my thing, and immediately pulls me out of the story. But I can definitely see how this would be a great book for people who don't mind that writing style, and want to learn new things about the wonderful world that is insects.
April 13, 2022
This is a very cute and informative book about bugs. I found the facts to be especially engaging for young learners - and some were very unique- as an adult I even learned things from this book. This is a great addition to any elementary aged STEM library.
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
February 2, 2023
Scads of easily digestible facts with humor beyond that of Mary Roach. A few B&W illustration, often with humor, break up some of the test.
Personal stories of the author's husband's and teen sons' reactions to some of her hands-on research are hilarious.
Personal stories of the author's husband's and teen sons' reactions to some of her hands-on research are hilarious.
February 7, 2023
This book has me so excited about bugs! I can’t stop talking about them. The enthusiasm with which this book was written and read is entertaining and bound to make you excited about the contents. It was inspiring, hopeful, informative and eye opening. Highly suggest to all!
February 23, 2023
12 hour book - meant to be listened to, and there are items to look up on internet as you go.
Love the ending, that gives you ideas on how you can make your own yard a better place for arthropods. Want to get started on that soon, but it is currently 9 degrees out, so that will have to wait.
Love the ending, that gives you ideas on how you can make your own yard a better place for arthropods. Want to get started on that soon, but it is currently 9 degrees out, so that will have to wait.
May 20, 2023
The reader was amazing! I liked some chapters better than others-some of the content was disconcerting, but I am much better informed about the wonderful world of bugs than I was before. Well-researched and ultimately, leaves you with a positive feeling.
August 22, 2024
Loved it. All kinds of good insect information delivered in a humorous and approachable way.be sure to have a tablet or phone available as the author suggests things you can stop and check out while reading….and they are well worth checking out
December 28, 2022
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about insects (and probably a whole lot more) in this fascinating and hilarious nonfiction book!
January 4, 2023
I recommend this book to absolutely anyone! Thank you, Brenna, for your amazing and dedicated compilation of research and your infectious spirit!
GO BUGS! 🐜 🐞 🐛
GO BUGS! 🐜 🐞 🐛
January 16, 2023
Full of amazing facts and offbeat humour, this book will have you appreciating all kinds of bugs.
March 4, 2023
Lots of interesting facts and stories about bugs, told in an entertaining way. I really enjoyed it.
May 21, 2023
For a book completely about bugs, this was actually quite interesting! I really learned a lot and the writing was engaging and fun.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews