Watch out, there are bugs about! Two very different new releases burst with wiggly, swooping minibeasts in praise of the world’s cleverest little creatures. In Lily Murray’s The Girl Who Loves Bugs (Macmillan, 30 March) Evie, unlike the rest of her household, can’t get enough of creepy crawlies. But when she brings a swarm into her home, they cause havoc at a family meal – cue ladybirds in bagels and ants in her brother’s pants.
Evie braces herself for a telling off but, in a lovely twist, her fearsome great-gran gleefully flings open her fancy jacket to reveal an elaborate bug-collecting kit attached to the lining (this is one of illustrator Jenny Løvlie’s many luminous images: with her coat unfurled great-gran herself appears about to fly off). The pair set about building a minibeast zoo and, at the close of this joyous tale about following your passions, we learn that it’s inspired by the real-life entomologist Lucy Evelyn Cheesman, born 1881, who became London Zoo’s first female insect house curator.
