Bug Boys: Adventures and Daydreams: (A Graphic Novel)

by Laura Knetzger

Overview

When two bug friends leave their small hometown, they realize there's a lot to learn about the outside world and themselves! This middle grade graphic novel series returns filled with friendship and adventure!

These two best friends are ready to explore beyond Bug Village and also, try new things together. Between sleepovers, and a cooking contest, these beetles have their hands full of exciting activities! Though they might save the haunted house adventure for last. . . .

Bug Boys return with all-new stories about our favorite bug pals. This amazing book filled with adventure, exploring new feelings, and continuing on the friendship journey with Stag-B and Rhino-B with all-new stories in this continuing series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593309520
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Series:	Bug Boys Series , #3
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	GN390L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Laura Knetzger graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2012. She has worked as a storyboard artist for Adventure Time. She lives in Seattle and makes comics about feelings. Her Bug Boys comic zine series was nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2018. Bug Boys is her debut graphic novel series. She continues to work on comics and picture books in her spare time.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/01/2022

Gr 2–6—Rhino-B and Stag-B visit fantastical venues both real and imagined in the most expansive volume yet of the "Bug Boys" series. The central bugs remain as curious, friendly, and in touch with their feelings and senses as ever, while their world is enormous and rich with detail above and below ground. They trade versions of a similar hero story with a dragonfly friend, with details shifting to fit the personality of each storyteller. Three separate aquatic communities are visited in a chapter stuffed with unique environmental features that startle the bug boys (and readers, no doubt) with their beauty and novelty. Another journey, this time underground, leads to the bug boys feeling grateful that they still have each other to lend perspective and company. "Our world got a lot bigger today. And it's a nice feeling," they say. Readers will agree. VERDICT The variety of warm personalities, as well as baked goods, create welcome bug-size tours of a world worth exploring repeatedly for new and returning readers.

School Library Journal

2022-03-02
Two beetle BFFs return for more adventures in nature.

In this third graphic installment, best beetle buds Rhino-B and Stag-B explore the wondrous world around them in nine bite-sized vignettes. In “Love Letter,” the duo finds an intriguing canister embedded amid tree roots and, inside, a richly imagined missive from its mysterious author, Scorpio. They realize that the letter may have never found its reader but in a poignant moment, relish the marvel of a fanciful daydream. In “The Cooking Competition,” the pair face off, each determined to win the Bug Village cooking contest. When their desire to win eclipses the meaning of the event, the bugs learn that collaboration can outweigh competition. “The Mountain Journey” takes readers along on an arduous hike with the beetles as an argument brews. Once the friends discuss their feelings, they can quietly contemplate and enjoy the natural beauty around them. Knetzger’s simply wrought tales use straightforward naming conventions (most of the insects are named for their species) alongside an uncomplicated full-color palette of muted, dreamy tones, emphasizing the evocative nature and thematic focus of each piece. These introspective tales (which can be read nonlinearly) are slowly and deliberately paced, not demanding that readers rush; those who appreciate more pensive, meditative tales will find much to savor here.

A winsome fantasy bubbling with gentle whimsy. (bonus comic, extra art, cover sketches) (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

★ "The variety of warm personalities… create welcome bug-size tours of a world worth exploring repeatedly for new and returning readers." —School Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher