jadzia66's Full Review: Ruth Horowitz - Big Surprise in the Bug Tank
Another week has gone by which means another library book that my daughter has brought home. Since the end of the school year is fast approaching, this will be the last school library book that Courtney will be bringing home. She was quite put out by that until I told her that we will visit our local public library this summer then she became excited at the thought of being able to borrow books from a library that did come from her school. I'm beyond thrilled that I have a child who loves to read so much and I can only hope that her love of reading continues throughout her life like mine has. Anyways, on to the actual review...
All About Big Surprise in the Bug Tank
Big Surprise in the Bug Tank is what I would call a very very early chapter book. It has 47 pages and is broken up into 5 chapters. It is written by Ruth Horowitz and illustrated by Joan Holub. Big Surprise in the Bug Tank has large print compared to other children's books I have seen and the illustrations are cute and humorous. It has a copyright date of 2005 and is published by Dial Books for Young Readers, which is a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. It has an ISBN # of 0-8037-2874-3.
The Story
2 brothers, the narrator and his younger brother Leo, convince their mother, who works in a lab that studies bugs, to let them each take a bug home as a pet. The brothers each pick a cockroach. Leo's cockroach has bumps on his head while the narrator's cockroach hisses nice and loud. The boys happily bring their cockroaches home and set them up together in a nice tank. After a while one of the cockroaches has 6 babies. Their mother warns them that they can't keep the babies because soon the babies will have babies and so on until they are over run with cockroaches. Chaos ensues when the brothers try to find a new home for the 6 babies. First they try to sell their roaches for a dollar each and when that didn't work they wrapped up their roaches and gave them to their uncles and aunt. The uncles and aunt really didn't want them so finally they hold an odd pet contest at the local library. The winners of the contest would each be given a cockroach as a prize. Needless to say, the parents of the kids who won the prizes were not thrilled in the least and returned the roaches that night. Finally though, the boys were able to hit upon a solution that, in the end, made everyone happy.
Why We Liked Big Surprise in the Bug Tank
Ok, I'm going to be honest here and state right up front that I found parts of this book to be pretty gross. First, it's about cockroaches so the yuck factor is pretty obvious from the get go. I also found the description of the baby cockroaches, when first born, to be disgusting.
"One day we saw little white things all over Buzz's bottom"
Of course the fact this grossed me out sent my daughter into peals of laughter.
However, what I did like about Big Surprise in the Bug Tank was the boys perseverance. They never gave up, even when people recoiled in horror at their pets, they just kept at it until they found a solution to their problem. This book also helps you tell the difference between a female and male cockroach, should you ever wish, in another life perhaps, to be so knowledgeable about roaches.
It goes without saying that Courtney found this book to be quite wonderful, especially when she realized how much is grossed her mother out.
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