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The book appears to be written for a 3-6 year old audience (in my opinion), but it's one children's story that we won't be keeping on our shelf. It's disappointing to see author Eric Carle's award-winning investment in a book with such an unpleasant tone. "Hey you," said the grouchy ladybug, "Want to fight."Not only does the bad-tempered protagonist ask once -- he tries to pick a fight with every single character in the book. Only to get smacked around by a whale at the end.Perhaps it "invites children to explore the concepts of time, size, shape, and manners" as advertized on the back cover.I think the more poignant lesson is that the biggest guy wins.
Much more memorable was the impressionof the fight line, and the relief we both felt when we put the book down. But this book waswritten for the 2-4 year old crowd, so it should not require parental editing.After repeating the offending line on every other page of this book that just wenton and on (bigger and bigger animals, same offensive line about the bug wantingto fight the animal), the 'lesson' of the book was squeezed on the last page ortwo and did not make it's point effectively. I expect to have to do that when I'm readingdown a story written for an older child to a younger one.
Some of Eric Carle's other booksare good for reading to very young ones (Brown Bear Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc). I still can not figure out what Carle was thinking when he put that line ina children's book 20 or so times. It's hard to imagine how this book made it to print.
I found myself editing the story as I read it to skip repeating the offending line. I won'tpick it up again.Don't waste your money on this book - it is not worth your time or money, and is not a good thing to read to any young child. But I tried to read The Grouchy Caterpillar to a three year oldniece and was amazed at the Carle-esque repetition (that is, repetition beyond the point anyone else would dare to go) of a sentence I would not want a three year old to hear very much at all.
It was something like: "Hey you, wanna fight.".
If you're really into children's books about ladybugs, I recommend Ladybug Baby Bug, by Janice and Mark Perkins, for it's warm, family message and colorful illustrations of the adorable ladybug family.Ladybug Baby Bug This is certainly one of Eric Carle's classica with a it of an offbeat story, but great nonetheless.
Purchased this to team with a game of the same name for my granddaughter who collects ladybugs.think she'll go "buggy" for it.
He also loves trying to read it back to me and with the addition of the small clock on the pages and a variety of different animals this book couldn't be sweeter for any age group. I bought his book for my oldest son who will be 4 shortly and loved reading it to him.
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