Bugs & Critters I Have Known [Hardcover]

Ann Heiskell Rickey (Author), Ann Heiskell Rickey (Author), Lamar Rickey Hawkins (Editor), Ardeane Heiskell Smith (Illustrator), Ardeane Heiskell Smith (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

"Bugs and Critters I Have Known" is a collection of humorous verses and story poems - all ecologically aware - featuring insects and sea creatures with appealing personalities. The text is aimed at school aged children and employs a challenging vocabulary with surprising rhymes. The book is illustrated with witty pen and ink drawings.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6A bubbly collection of original poems mainly celebrating insects (though some other critters take center stage in the final section). Mostly humorous in content, the rhymes tickle the imagination as well as the funny bone, with the water strider slaloming on six little skis while the dragonfly is not just a bug,/Hes enamel, hes air, and are often thought-provoking as well, as when the mayfly considers the cutting irony of the ants offhand greeting have a nice day. The simple pen-and-ink cartoons support the verses and are in perfect step with their creepy-crawly subjects. While not as literary as Paul Fleischmans Joyful Noise (HarperCollins, 1988) or as decorative as Doug Florians Insectlopedia (Harcourt, 1998), this enjoyable romp can be teamed with those titles plus Cathi Hepworths Bug Off!: A Swarm of Insect Words (Putnam, 1998) and Jinny Johnsons handsome Simon and Schuster Childrens Guide to Insects and Spiders (S & S, 1997) for a nifty bug mix sure to lure science-resistant kids.Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Ann Rickey has a delicious and wicked sense of whimsy which, when applied to the world of bugs, has created a magical and hilarious universe of wriggling. crawling and buzzing creatures destined to delight (and educate) both kids and their parents. Imagine a hybrid of Shel Silverstein and T.S. Eliot's "Practical Cats " and you come close to the enjoyment that Rickey - aided by the witty illustrations of Ardeane Smith - delivers with this book. -- Celeste Fremon, feature writer for Los Angeles Times Magazine, Disney Adventures Magazine, Parenting Magazine.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 100 pages
• Publisher: Old Canyon Pr; 1 edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966783417
• ISBN-13: 978-0966783414
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,581,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ENCHANTING book not to be missed !, November 9, 1999

By 

vera marano ([e-mail]) (J. Lewis Crozer Library, Chester, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bugs & Critters I Have Known (Hardcover)

This title deserves a home in every public and school library. As a librarian, I feel "Bugs" admirably fills the current void for children's poetry and is the perfect vehicle for a library program or a school project.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Educational and entertaining for children, September 5, 2002

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bugs & Critters I Have Known (Hardcover)

"Bugs and Critters I Have Known" is a poetic look at various "bugs and critters" common to North America. From Chiggers to Mealy Bugs to Tomato Worms and Water Striders, each gets its own special piece of poetry about its lifestyle and quirks.

An children's book that is easy to read and educational while still being humorous and whimsical, it is sure to delight most young readers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Neglected Master, April 16, 2006

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bugs & Critters I Have Known (Hardcover)

Children might like this book, but I haven't been one for many years and still I enjoyed the homespun wisdom of Ann Heiskell Rickey, a poetic talent of the order of Emily Dickinson, only strangely concentrated on one subject only: insects. Why more criticism has not been done on the work of this seminal author, I have no idea. Maybe her fierce focus on the world of insects made people think of her as a children's author, though this hardly seems fair, either to children or adults. Maybe her salty, take-no-prisoners attitude, born of a colorful life that began in Memphis, Tennessee, like Kathy Bates, Shelby Foote, Aretha Franklin, Cybill Shepherd and Morgan Freeman, made her seem like a "Southern" and therefore regional author. But for whatever reason, this poetry has been severely undervalued and it is good to see a whole book of it in print.

It may be that Heiskell Rickey herself undervalued her work. We will have to see more biographical research done on this fascinating lyric poet before we know for sure. In the meantime, we ponder the mysteries of human life through an unusual prism, the tiniest among us, the bugs. Like the mystical "no-see-um," about whom she writes, "They're either too small/ Or . . . they're not there at all." Like e e cummings, she plays with punctuation so that each of the three dots of the ellipsis may actually represent one of the mysterious "No-see-ums," of whom no man may say for sure that they even exist.

is there a feminist consciousness at work in this material as well? There certainly is. Heiskell Rickey's encounter with the praying mantis finds her, the mantis, delicately cleaning her teeth after feeding on her own husband. That's the way of the mantis and, after a bit, you begin to see that the poet has designed this as an allegory for women's lives. With a queer grimace of understanding across species lines, the poet tells the mantis, "I salute your appetite./ /You're very efficient at husbandry." Elsewhere there is an eco-consciousness that predicts modern movements in bringing back the land, and an awareness of the gentle and the elemental, words that not only rhyme, they go together in waves. I don't know whether I prefer the shorter verses here, or the longer more narrative pieces. The shorter ones are certainly more quotable. "To be turned on his back/ To a beetle is hateful./ / Turn him back over--/ He'll be truly grateful."

The Golden Rule applied, not only to the lowly insect, but to poetry as well. The illustrations, by Adrean Heiskell Smith (a relative perhaps of the author?) are cute, sort of, and children may like them, but they're not quite in tune with the poems, they make the poems seem whimsical which they are anything but. However, I would be happy to see more of the work of Heiskell Smith in other contexts.