Ant Story
A Graphic Novel
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- ¥1,400
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- ¥1,400
Publisher Description
A Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2024
Insect-extraordinaire Jay Hosler is back, this time exploring how we seek to understand ourselves and the world around us through the eyes of one of our world’s tiniest creatures: the ant.
Meet Rubi, a tiny ant with a big personality and an even bigger love for stories. Who knew the small world of her colony could be full of unexpected friendships, epic adventures, and death-defying escapes?
Follow Rubi on the journey of a lifetime as she uncovers the mystery and wonder of one of the world’s tiniest, mightiest insects.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Through the lens of a charismatic cartoon ant born into a colony of realistically rendered leafcutter ants, biologist and cartoonist Hosler (The Way of the Hive) highlights entomological wonders and examines how humans seek to understand nature through storytelling in this informative and danger-filled graphic novel. As the only talking ant in the colony, Rubi passes the time in her subterranean agricultural palace by telling stories to silent worker ants chopping leaves for their fungus garden, a food source and larvae nursery. Seeking companionship, Rubi leaves the colony, only to face myriad perils. While under attack by a camouflaged lizard, Rubi saves Miranda, another talking insect. Together, the new friends flee the "death tongue," avoid unfriendly ants, and fall into an antlion's trap. When Rubi discovers that Miranda may be a phorid, an insect that lays its egg inside an ant's head, she must decide if she can risk remaining friends with her species's mortal enemy. Vibrant drawings and Hosler's enthusiasm and knowledge of the natural world combine to form this cheerfully gross depiction of how ants feed and incubate larvae, preserve food, or become food sources themselves, with poop playing a pivotal role in many of Rubi's activities. Ages 8–12.
