Don't Bug Me!

Children's Literature

This is a fast-moving story of sixth grader Megan who, along with all her classmates, has a buggy assignment. Each student must find, kill and label twenty-five different insects. Megan has made a good start with her collection when her younger brother Alexander decides to bury all her specimens in little graves, marked with toothpick crosses. In a desperate attempt to find insects, Megan and her best friend Belinda hide in school lockers until the halls empty and then search the cafeteria. Wouldn't that be the best place to find bugs? To their surprise, the lunchroom is clean and shiny. They don't find any bugs, but they do find themselves in a lot of trouble. Charlie is the class clown and he's rumored to like Megan, but she finds that hard to believe because he always teases her. In the search for insects she discovers his secret fear and, with her brother Alexander, helps him to overcome it and find his own insects while she works on completing her collection. 2001, Holiday House, $15.95. Ages 7 to 11. Reviewer: Carolyn Mott Ford

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Sixth-grader Megan spends most of this novel trying to complete her bug collection for a class assignment. She is constantly "bugged" by a classmate, Charlie, who delights in teasing her, and by her young brother, Alexander, who "rescues" her specimens as soon as her back is turned. Her friend Belinda is no help. She laughs at the insect funerals and graves created by Alexander, and insists that creep Charlie teases Megan because he likes her. The young protagonist perseveres throughout, even trying to catch bugs after hours in the school cafeteria (and getting caught). Meanwhile, she discovers something about Charlie: he's secretly terrified of insects. The three-way relationship that develops between bug-expert Alexander, bug-fearer Charlie, and bug-collector Megan makes for an interesting story. Readers will enjoy its fast pace and the quirky antics of the kids. Pair this novel with Laurence Yep's Cockroach Cooties (Hyperion, 2000) or Carol Sonenklar's Bug Boy (Holt, 1997) for a creepy-crawly booktalking combination.-Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Bugs and boys sound twin themes in this unvarnished debut. Amidst pranks, horselaughs, and who-likes-whom conversations, Megan scours her Houston neighborhood for the 25 different insects she needs for a sixth-grade biology assignment. Infuriatingly, after her bug-loving little brother Alexander sends her back to square one by reverently burying the specimens she's managed to gather, obnoxious classmate Charlie dubs her "Beggin' Megan" and subjects her to a series of buggy puns and practical jokes. Though Megan makes a few wrong turns, such as sneaking into the lunchroom kitchen after hours (only to discover that it's not infested, despite the usual rumors about school food), in general she sticks to the straight and narrow, mending fences with Alexander, and even using the newfound insight that Charlie is mortally afraid of insects constructively-helping him with the assignment rather than torpedoing his standing with the other lads by blabbing. A friendship is born. Zollman has a tendency to spell out lessons and characters' feelings rather than let readers pick them up from context, but Megan, despite her temper, is more of a peacemaker than a soldier in the gender wars, and bugs are always a surefire grossout motif in preteen fiction. (Fiction. 9-11)