Grade 4-6–Welcome to Piper's traveling insect circus where Art, 12, and his friend Daisy share the big top with Rufus the ladybug, Horatio the stag beetle, and wood lice Bob and Curly. Imagine Art's dismay when he catches their agent, a fly, conspiring with a wasp. Wasps, the Voldemorts of the insect community, always spell trouble, but the two children unravel the entomological conspiracy with satisfactory results. Quaint insect-circus books set in the English countryside don't surface every day, and Copeland's light adventure will entertain readers. Ostensibly set in the late 19th century, the story strikes a charming balance of mystery, drama, and the allure of insect-circus life. Children will enjoy the author's tongue-twisting conventions: flies use unorthodox grammar (I've just thinked of something), and snails can't pronounce s's (ath thure as thnailth eggth). While Americans might pause at the title (a bundle is a fight), the eclectic cast keeps the pages turning in spite of insect and circus vocabulary, helped along by Copeland's pen-and-ink drawings of this unique world. Even if insects elicit the screech/squash instinct, this gentle idyll will make readers smile.–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
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From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Cheerfully tongue-in-cheek, resolutely old-timey, and intensely imaginative, this tale follows a traveling circus through the British countryside. And what a circus it is, featuring insects--sentient, verbal, and as large as the people they perform alongside. When Art, grandson of the circus' human owner, gets a spyglass on his twelfth birthday, he discovers a nefarious plot involving a rival circus and the ant that serves as his grandfather's trusted agent. With the help of his pet ladybug, Rufus; his intrepid friend Daisy ("a most accomplished bareback beetle rider"); and a lovelorn stick insect from Australia, Art investigates and exposes the conspiracy, with the whimsical action extended in frequent line drawings by the author. Colorful, invented insect dialect abounds, circus lore delights, and the final "bundle" (English slang for fight) between the circus ringmasters is a spectacle indeed. A coda recounts grandfatherly advice for training stag beetles, weevils, and the like. GraceAnne DeCandido
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