THE ANT BULLY
by John Nickle & illustrated by John Nickle
Bullies always find someone smaller than they are to pick on, so when Sid the bully picks on Lucas, Lucas bullies ants, drenching them with his squirt gun. An ant wizard shrinks Lucas, who then goes to work with the rest of the ants, hauling leaves, finding food, and fighting off an attack of wasps. The queen ant strikes a bargain with Lucas; if he will bring her a Swell Jell candy, he will be freed. Lucas’s mission is successful, and when he returns to normal size, there’s a bonus—the ants downsize Sid. Large, colorful acrylic paintings somewhere in the artistic vicinity of Ms. Spider’s neighborhood carry the tale; Nickle uses shifting perspectives to accentuate height, creating giants out of children and mountains out of ant hills; these shifts help convey Lucas’s own changing attitudes. (Picture book. 4-7)