BEETLE MCGRADY EATS BUGS!

The title says it all: Wannabe explorer Beetle McGrady, whose heroes are Amelia Earhart and Marco Polo, gets herself into trouble during Fun with Food Week by adding ants to her group’s food pyramid. However, when push comes to shove, Beetle isn’t quite as eager to engage gastronomically with insects as she’d like. With classmates Roger, Lacey and Mona forming a Greek chorus as Beetle wrestles with her squeamishness, McDonald walks both Beetle and reader companionably through the week until Chef Suzanne shows up on Friday with a selection of wriggly delicacies that allows Beetle to find her inner bug-eater. Manning’s watercolor illustrations feature a parka-clad ant (from Ant-arctica, presumably) who watches the freckle-faced, Pippi Longstocking–pigtailed Beetle’s struggle from corner vignettes. The images of Chef Suzanne’s creepy-crawlies are amiably disgusting; Beetle’s grossed-out classmates nicely satisfying. Washy blue images of Beetle as anteater and mealworm form visual counterpoint to a text that finds its subject’s voice beautifully: “[B]ird’s-nest soup did not make her Marco Polo. Bird’s-nest soup just made her a spit-eater.” Agreeably icky fun. (Picture book. 5-9)