Ants Don’t Wear Pants! [Giggle and Learn]
by Kevin McCloskey; illus. by the author
Primary    TOON    40 pp.
9/19    978-1-943145-45-4    $12.95

In this fifth entry in the Giggle and Learn series of nonfiction early-reader comics (most recently, Snails Are Just My Speed, rev. 7/18), two peppy young people investigate ants’ amazingness. After magically shrinking down for an insect’s-eye view, the girl observes ants as they use their four strongest senses to communicate (by touch), listen (through their legs), sniff out food (using their antennae; scout ants’ bums leave a “smell trail” leading to food), and then share it…by vomiting into one another’s mouths (“Looks like they’re K.I.S.S.I.N.G!” says the boy; “Um…” says the girl). The acrylic and gouache illustrations, painted on brown paper bags and using subdued nature hues, give the children — and the ants — plenty of personality. Simple labeled diagrams depict scientific concepts such as anatomy, life cycle, colony structure, and cooperative work. One memorable page shows a thousand black ants working in concert; at the bottom of the page (and the next and the next), a line of leaf-cutter ants marches by. Facing pages close to the end of the book show “What Ants Eat” and “What Eats Ants”; with a page-turn, anteaters get their own say, including humorous speech-bubble dialogue: “Why don’t we ever order pizza?” “We’re anteaters!” “Okay. How about pizza with extra ants?”

From the January/February 2020 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.