Here are 100 books that Ant Story fans have personally recommended if you like
Ant Story.
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I grew up in rural Southern Maryland, watching the bats wheel overhead at night. There were bugs under every rock, snakes winding their way through the small creek at the bottom of our backyard, and frogs that would suddenly jump up onto the glass window in the laundry room and scare the ever-living daylights out of you. I kept pet rats and caught jars full of fireflies. I live in a city now, on the opposite end of the continent, but my heart lives back home in the woods. This list is for the kids & kids at heart who love the creepy critters, the creechies who get a bad rap.
This is probably the “youngest” book on my list, but it’s one that’s very close to my heart. It is in the back of my mind every time I see a bat; I wouldn’t be the person I am today without this picture book. I grew up reading it, so it’s the only non-contemporary book on this list, but I think its story of self-discovery is an evergreen one.
It’s a love letter to bats, moms, and people who may not quite fit in. The illustrations are gorgeous and stand the test of time. It's the perfect short and sweet-rumination on the importance of being yourself, even if you’re a creepy critter.
Knocked from her mother's safe embrace by an attacking owl, Stellaluna lands headfirst in a bird's nest. This adorable baby fruit bat's world is literally turned upside down when she is adopted by the occupants of the nest and adapts to their peculiar bird habits. Two pages of notes at the end of the story provide factual information about bats. "Delightful and informative but never didactic; a splendid debut." - Kirkus Reviews AGES: 4 to 7 AUTHOR: Janell Cannon's picture books have won many awards and are beloved around the world. She is the author and illustrator of Verdi, Crickwing,…
I grew up in rural Southern Maryland, watching the bats wheel overhead at night. There were bugs under every rock, snakes winding their way through the small creek at the bottom of our backyard, and frogs that would suddenly jump up onto the glass window in the laundry room and scare the ever-living daylights out of you. I kept pet rats and caught jars full of fireflies. I live in a city now, on the opposite end of the continent, but my heart lives back home in the woods. This list is for the kids & kids at heart who love the creepy critters, the creechies who get a bad rap.
I wish I was a bug so I could live in this world. Knetzger’s book is a gorgeously illustrated graphic chapter book that clearly loves the natural world and refuses to talk down to young readers. The bugs in question are beautifully drawn, cartoony versions of themselves—Rhino-B and Stag-B live in a colorful world filled with both realistic bug facts and a quietly fantastic reality where different bugs coexist harmoniously.
A case in point: the boys regularly visit their friend and librarian, Dome Spider, who often makes comments about eating "meat" but never actually tries to eat the pair. The stakes in their world are not quite naturally realistic, but the emotions are always resonant. The boys experience a range of days—beautiful ones, sad ones, days they fight, and everything in between.
I’d love to give this book to an early reader to teach them that empathy should extend to…
Join two bug friends as they learn about the science of the world around them and the meaning of friendship in this early graphic novel series perfect for fans of Narwhal and Jelly!
Rhino-B is a brash, but sweet guy. Stag-B is a calm and scholarly adventurer. Together these two young beetles make up the Bug Boys, best friends who spend their time exploring the world of Bug Village and beyond, as well as their own -- sometimes confusing and complicated -- thoughts and feelings.
In their first adventure, the Bug Boys travel through spooky caves, work with a spider…
I grew up in rural Southern Maryland, watching the bats wheel overhead at night. There were bugs under every rock, snakes winding their way through the small creek at the bottom of our backyard, and frogs that would suddenly jump up onto the glass window in the laundry room and scare the ever-living daylights out of you. I kept pet rats and caught jars full of fireflies. I live in a city now, on the opposite end of the continent, but my heart lives back home in the woods. This list is for the kids & kids at heart who love the creepy critters, the creechies who get a bad rap.
As an animal lover who’s also lived in cities for half my life, I can’t help but love even the critters that typically get the “pest” label. This book’s author and artist are clearly on my side with this charming graphic novel. It’s a book about anthropomorphic raccoons, but it tackles some pretty wonderful social topics—in a quest to dive the perfect dumpster, the characters go up against the specter of corporate food waste.
While a topic like that might sound like a lot for a kid, the book is incredibly playful. I love any book that loves a raccoon, but they definitely get extra points for being anti-capitalist raccoons. I’d read this one with any kid who loves a pop-punk attitude—just keep some snacks on hand for when the critters finally get their garbage. Gardner makes it look tasty!
Live life in the trash lane with this first entry in a hilarious middle grade graphic novel series about a family of sneaky raccoons from graphic novel superstars Stephanie Cooke and Whitney Gardner!
Meet the Bins family, a trio of raccoons in the risky business of dumpster diving for all their needs. With Dusty's brains, ReRe's muscle, and Scraps's gadgets (please don't tell him he's almost definitely an opossum), the Binses are determined to leave no garbage bin unturned in their pursuit of the tastiest, most delicious trash they can find.
When the family discovers a new upscale grocery store…
I grew up in rural Southern Maryland, watching the bats wheel overhead at night. There were bugs under every rock, snakes winding their way through the small creek at the bottom of our backyard, and frogs that would suddenly jump up onto the glass window in the laundry room and scare the ever-living daylights out of you. I kept pet rats and caught jars full of fireflies. I live in a city now, on the opposite end of the continent, but my heart lives back home in the woods. This list is for the kids & kids at heart who love the creepy critters, the creechies who get a bad rap.
Alexovitch’s earlier work was a huge influence on my development as an artist—reading Serenity Rose at just the right time knocked my world sideways—so I would be remiss not to include this new book aimed at the 8-12 set. There aren’t any regular animals in this book, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t chock full of creepy creatures; sweet little Sunny Von Shock is one of the creepies herself. Sunny’s enthusiasm for scary things is infectious for the reader but not for her rightfully freaked-out friend, Milo.
Their budding friendship is sweet, their world is extremely cool, and the scares are actually scary—Alexovich used to work on Invader Zim, and it shows. This is the most “mature” book on my list, but I think a particularly brave little reader would still get a big kick out of it.
“Equal parts nightmarish and outrageously funny, this graphic novel adventure is a thrilling joyride through an electrifying world!”—Max Brallier, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Kids on Earth
When shy, anxious Milo rings the doorbell of the forbidden Shock City castle on a dare, he gets more than he bargained for when peppy young monster Sunny answers the door and labels herself Milo's new BFF. But when Milo returns to tell Sunny he—and the rest of the town's residents—are moving out of the crumbling Shock City, his monster pal refuses to accept it. She soon convinces Milo…
Hi! I’m a writer of middle grade and young adult novels. My middle grade novels both have science and nature entwined in the plot. Down to Earth, my debut middle grade novel with Crown Books for Young Readers, has space, meteorites, well drilling, and water dowsing in it. In The Natural Genius of Ants, my second middle grade book, there is a kettle hole pond, a shady hemlock grove, a stand of sugar maples, and an ant farm. While writing the book, I kept many ant farms and cared for a carpenter ant queen and her offspring.
Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants is full of amazing ant facts, but I love it most for its cover, its photos, and the fascinating chapter headings, like "Odorous House Ant," "Big Headed Ant," "Thief Ant," and "Acrobat Ant"! Of course, I am especially happy that the first chapter is "Carpenter Ant," since in my book, Harvard fills the ant farm he and his father build with carpenter ants he finds in the house.
Did you know that for every human on earth, there are about one million ants? They are among the longest-lived insects with some ant queens passing the thirty-year mark as well as some of the strongest. Fans of both the city and countryside alike, ants decompose dead wood, turn over soil (in some places more than earthworms), and even help plant forests by distributing seeds. But while fewer than thirty of the nearly one thousand ant species living in North America are true pests, we cringe when we see them marching across our kitchen floors. No longer! In this witty,…
I wrote my first picture book, My Secret Bully, to help kids who have experienced bullying and friendship issues. Over the years, I’ve written numerous award-winning children’s books, including The Invisible Boy, a School Library JournalBest Picture Books Selection and a recommended back-to-school book by USA Today and Scholastic Instructor.I’ve also had the honor of collaborating with leading experts and organizations including Sesame Workshop, International Bullying Prevention Association, Committee for Children, and ConnectSafely.org. My books and presentations focus on promoting social-emotional learning, empathy, kindness, and inclusion in the classroom and beyond.
When a boy tells a little ant that he intends to squish him, the ant offers great reasons why he shouldn’t be squished. The story ends with a cliffhanger: Will the boy squish the ant? Will he let the ant go free? The authors brilliantly leave the ending up to the reader. Hey, Little Ant is a wonderful story that promotes perspective-taking, empathy, and acceptance in young readers.
The perfect tool to help inspire compassion in our world’s youth.” —Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist
The 20th anniversary edition of the hilarious picture book that poses the classic conundrum: To squish or not to squish? With a meaningful message about the importance of caring for creatures big and small, this is a perfect gift for Earth Day.
What would you do if the ant you were about to step on looked up and started talking? Would you stop and listen?
That’s what happens in this funny, thought-provoking book. Originally a song by a father-daughter team, this suprising conversation between a…
I’m the youngest of five, and my siblings are what shaped me and my world. Growing up, I never felt alone, except climbing the stairs to bed half an hour before anyone else (such an injustice!). We played cards and games and had noisy discussions throughout my childhood and youth, and we still do. I wouldn’t be me without siblings. It’s the relationship that most fascinates me. There are siblings in all the books I’ve written and probably in all the books I’ll ever write. It’s not a theme I look for when I read, but I recognize the feeling when I encounter it and it feels like home.
There are thousands of siblings in this book—the offspring of a single queen ant are siblings, aren’t they?—and they are most definitely understated. There are humans in the book too, but it’s the ants that interest me, and their sense of relationship to each other. This is one of my favourite novels. It’s beautifully imagined, and so full of fascinating facts that I can never retain them all, so I need to read it again and again. I tried to choose contemporary titles for this list; this is the oldest, from the 1990s, set in the near future, which we’re now living in.
Here is the stunning international bestseller in the tradition of Watership Down but with a dark, original twist. Unique, daring, and unforgettable, it tells the story of an ordinary family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as intelligent as our own--a colony of ants determined to survive at any cost....
Jonathan Wells and his young family have come to the Paris flat at 3, rue des Sybarites through the bequest of his eccentric late uncle Edmond. Inheriting the dusty apartment, the Wells family are left with only one warning: Never go down into the cellar.
Hi! I’m a writer of middle grade and young adult novels. My middle grade novels both have science and nature entwined in the plot. Down to Earth, my debut middle grade novel with Crown Books for Young Readers, has space, meteorites, well drilling, and water dowsing in it. In The Natural Genius of Ants, my second middle grade book, there is a kettle hole pond, a shady hemlock grove, a stand of sugar maples, and an ant farm. While writing the book, I kept many ant farms and cared for a carpenter ant queen and her offspring.
Just like ants, books come in all sizes! I recommend this slim 32-page book if you want some fun facts and great close-up photos of ants. When writing my own book, I used this book as a resource and for inspiration. There’s even a very interesting section about ant queens and their eggs!!
Ants are all over. They come in different sizes, different colours, and have different ways of thriving where they live. But thrive they do, and sometimes with the most amazing adaptations.
Ants, their homes, and their most interesting aspects are the topic of this book. This high-interest, educationally vetted series of beginning readers features the magnificent images of National Geographic, accompanied by texts written by experienced, skilled children's book authors. The inside back cover of the paperback edition is an interactive feature based upon the book.
I am a scientist studying the evolution of insect communities for years. I am fascinated by their high degree of cooperation and how these animals make collective decisions. But I also observe social parasitic ants that raid other colonies and make their workers work for them. This tension between altruistic cooperation on the one hand and violence and war, on the other hand, is common to human and insect societies, even if they evolved in completely different ways. I hope that when you read the books I recommend here, you will be as fascinated as I am by these parallel universes and perhaps next time you will see an ant with different eyes.
I'm an ant researcher, so perhaps it's not surprising that I'm recommending an ant book. But this book is less about the short essays, which do a great job of describing the biology of these social animals, and more about the photos. Most people overlook ants because they are so tiny, but when you enlarge them, as in this book, they show their real beauty. When I received my copy, I was amazed and I have seen many ants up close. But the sheer variety of morphological structures, faces, and yes, even colors. Not all ants are black or red, there are even ants that shimmer in all the colors of the rainbow.
We notice mostly ant workers, but in this book also the males are represented, and they often look out-worldly, so not at all like we imagine ants. A book that shows the aesthetics of these social animals…
Nature's most successful insects captured in remarkable macrophotography
In Ants,
photographer Eduard Florin Niga brings us incredibly close to the most
numerous animals on Earth, whose ability to organize colonies,
communicate among themselves, and solve complex problems has made them
an object of endless fascination. Among the more than 30 species
photographed by Niga are leafcutters that grow fungus for food, trap-jaw
ants with fearsome mandibles, bullet ants with potent stingers,
warriors, drivers, gliders, harvesters, and the pavement ants that are
always underfoot. Among his most memorable images are
portraits-including queens, workers, soldiers, and rarely seen
males-that bring the reader…
Hi! I’m a writer of middle grade and young adult novels. My middle grade novels both have science and nature entwined in the plot. Down to Earth, my debut middle grade novel with Crown Books for Young Readers, has space, meteorites, well drilling, and water dowsing in it. In The Natural Genius of Ants, my second middle grade book, there is a kettle hole pond, a shady hemlock grove, a stand of sugar maples, and an ant farm. While writing the book, I kept many ant farms and cared for a carpenter ant queen and her offspring.
Remember when I said ant books come in all sizes? Well, The Ants is a big book, as in large and heavy. It’s also a definitive text that won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 1991. I used it for research for my book and it was also the inspiration for the ant book that Harvard and Nevaeh use to study ants in my novel. Edward Wilson was an American biologist, and his specialty was the study of ants. He was nicknamed the “ant man”.
This landmark work, the distillation of a lifetime of research by the world's leading myrmecologists, is a thoroughgoing survey of one of the largest and most diverse groups of animals on the planet. Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson review in exhaustive detail virtually all topics in the anatomy, physiology, social organization, ecology, and natural history of the ants. In large format, with almost a thousand line drawings, photographs, and paintings, it is one of the most visually rich and all-encompassing views of any group of organisms on earth. It will be welcomed both as an introduction to the subject…
