George loves bugs. In fact he loves bugs so much, and is so inspired after a trip to the local natural history museum with his grandad, that he goes a little crazy, capturing all the bugs he can find in his back garden at home.
The problem is - George has completely stripped the garden of all its interesting insect life! Not a buzz nor a chirp from anything, and all the poor bugs that he's captured look thoroughly miserable sitting in their jars in George's room.
Thankfully Grandad is on hand to help George make the right choice - freeing those bugs so that they can carry on enjoying their lives once again.
The subtle and brilliant message of the story is one that children will wholly understand and perhaps even identify with and the great grandfather / grandchild generation-spanning relationship is really nicely described. We also really loved Alex's scritchy-scratchy artwork, perfectly suited to the story.
The book also goes one step further, with some brilliant facts and information about all the insects in the book, and the vital part they play in maintaining our garden ecosystems. We really do need our beautiful bugs after all.
Sum this book up in a sentence: A book for any children who've ever thought about keeping bugs as pets, some things are best left where they are, kids!
"The Bug Collector" by Alex G Griffiths is out now, published by Andersen Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).