[.ca] The Grouchy Ladybug (ISBN 069401320X)

Repetition, repetition, repetition....:
After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my son enough times to have it memorized, I bought this book thinking that it would be a nice change, and expecting The Grouchy Ladybug to have a moral somewhere along the lines of Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (if you haven't read that to your kids, get it). I found The Grouchy Ladybug to be repetative to the point of parental abuse. Eric Carle has good children's books, but this one was definitely not my favorite. The only thing my son has learned from it is "Hey, You, Wanna Fight?" It was okay to read once or twice, but the next garage sale, it's going to mysteriously vanish. I would suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar instead, if you don't have it.

Wonderful book--one of my child's favorites:
This is a great book and the repetition is great for a emerging young reader. My 3 year old can "read" this book to himself and his baby sister because he can anticipate what will happen when he turns the page. He has language delays due to hearing problems when he repeated ear infections and these repetitious books that Eric Carle has done have been wonderful with slowly introducing him to language.

This book is crap:
Eric Carle has done better. Read the "Very Quiet Cricket". This book is extremely repetitive and isn't really even a story so much as an excuse for the mediocre illustrations and a kind of irritating gimmick of having differently sized pages. These pages are have for my son to turn also. I love reading real children's stories to my kids, and I don't mind some repetition (e.g., "Guess how much I love you" and "Are you my Mother?" are great...) But the ladybug keeps saying the same thing over and over and over. Yeah, I've hid the book from my kids and they don't miss it.

I can relate to the ladybug.:
I enjoyed reading the Hungary Catapiller to my nephews and niece, so I was excited when I saw the Grouchy Ladybug. I think it's a great book for older children, b/c it shows children how if you're mean and start fights, no one will want to play with you. The other reason I really enjoyed this book is because it helps to teach kids about telling time. The whole book is cute. The art work is amazing and the kids like the bright colors. All in all, I think it's a great book for kids and parents to either read aloud or just look at the pictures.

Animal kingdom and clocks:
This book tells the story of a grouchy ladybug who didn't want to share the juicy aphids that he found on a leaf with anyone else. He decides to fight over the aphids with another ladybug, but then determines that she is too small, so he goes off in search of a more worthy opponent. As each hour passes, he encounters another creature, larger and more fearsome than the last, and he dismisses each one in turn until, tired and hungry, he ends up back at the leaf again to share the last of the aphids with the friendly ladybug. The book is not very scary, and animal lovers will get a kick out of it, since it includes so many different creatures. There is a focus on simple time telling in the book. The book contains about 800 words.