Ant Story

by Jay Hosler, Jay Hosler (Illustrator)

Overview

Insect-extraordinaire Jay Hosler is back, this time exploring how we seek to understand ourselves and the world around us through the eyes of one of our world’s tiniest creatures: the ant.

Meet Rubi, a tiny ant with a big personality and an even bigger love for stories. Who knew the small world of her colony could be full of unexpected friendships, epic adventures, and death-defying escapes?

Follow Rubi on the journey of a lifetime as she uncovers the mystery and wonder of one of the world’s tiniest, mightiest insects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063294004
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	306,789
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jay Hosler is a biology professor by day and a scheming cartoonist by night. His diabolical plan is to weave his love of the natural world into thrilling tales of adventure. So far, the plan seems to be working. Unsuspecting readers fall into stories about creepy-crawly things and discovering the wondrous world right under their feet. His books have been translated into several languages, but he can only read the ones in English. In his spare time, Jay likes to read comics and watch Godzilla movies. He lives in Pennsylvania with his queen and two drones.

Jay Hosler is a biology professor by day and a scheming cartoonist by night. His diabolical plan is to weave his love of the natural world into thrilling tales of adventure. So far, the plan seems to be working. Unsuspecting readers fall into stories about creepy-crawly things and discovering the wondrous world right under their feet. His books have been translated into several languages, but he can only read the ones in English. In his spare time, Jay likes to read comics and watch Godzilla movies. He lives in Pennsylvania with his queen and two drones.

Editorial Reviews

12/04/2023

Through the lens of a charismatic cartoon ant born into a colony of realistically rendered leafcutter ants, biologist and cartoonist Hosler (The Way of the Hive) highlights entomological wonders and examines how humans seek to understand nature through storytelling in this informative and danger-filled graphic novel. As the only talking ant in the colony, Rubi passes the time in her subterranean agricultural palace by telling stories to silent worker ants chopping leaves for their fungus garden, a food source and larvae nursery. Seeking companionship, Rubi leaves the colony, only to face myriad perils. While under attack by a camouflaged lizard, Rubi saves Miranda, another talking insect. Together, the new friends flee the “death tongue,” avoid unfriendly ants, and fall into an antlion’s trap. When Rubi discovers that Miranda may be a phorid, an insect that lays its egg inside an ant’s head, she must decide if she can risk remaining friends with her species’s mortal enemy. Vibrant drawings and Hosler’s enthusiasm and knowledge of the natural world combine to form this cheerfully gross depiction of how ants feed and incubate larvae, preserve food, or become food sources themselves, with poop playing a pivotal role in many of Rubi’s activities. Ages 8–12. Agent: Judith Hansen, Hansen Literary Management. (Mar.) ■

Publishers Weekly

04/01/2024

Gr 3–7—Meet Rubi, "a cartoon ant who was born into a colony of real leaf-cutter ants." As the only cartoon ant in the colony, Rubi is the only one who speaks. She describes the colony to readers, explaining how the ants grow food underground, communicate with smells, and other incredible facts. When the ants go out to gather leaves, Rubi continues to describe their abilities and daily activities, as well as pointing out the dangers lurking outside the anthill. Once Rubi meets Miranda, who also talks, they have one adventure after another, avoiding all those dangers. The illustrations make it easy to distinguish Rubi and Miranda from the other insects. Changes in perspective give the story a cinematic feel as some panels zoom in for dialogue between two characters while others pull back to give a wide-angle view of the action. The endless stories that Rubi tells to make life in the anthill more interesting and to explain things to Miranda also share important information with readers in an entertaining way. Students will laugh out loud while learning amazing facts. VERDICT A captivating look at ants that is also a story of learning to be a true friend; great for future entomologists, graphic novel readers, and those who love buddy narratives.—Suzanne Costner

School Library Journal

★ 2023-12-06
A small leafcutter ant with a flair for dramatic recitations squires a new friend through a fantastically dangerous rain forest world.

Being a “cartoon ant” who can talk (and talk), Rubi has had a lonely time of it. Her larger, nonverbal ant sisters scurry busily about cutting up leaves and cultivating underground fungus gardens rather than paying her (or even her melodramatic accounts of ant colony life) any mind. That all changes, though, when Rubi meets an ant who likewise talks but seems newly awakened and unaware that there are “a gajillion ways to die out here.” The breathless ensuing odyssey provides quick and continuing proof of the danger, with the two barely surviving threats from swarming army ants and a chameleon’s (as Rubi puts it) “DEATH TONGUE!” to voracious antlions and a gut-slurping assassin bug. Not to mention serious friction when Rubi’s ballad about a type of parasitic fly that lays its eggs in ant bodies to hatch, feed, and grow (“Once there was a horrid phorid / flying in the sky…”) gets an unexpectedly strong reaction from her mysterious new acquaintance. The development of the pair’s improbable bond becomes a storyline every bit as enthralling as the teeming, vividly depicted tropical milieu, with its rich arrays of intricate, clearly laid-out biological cycles and patterns. Bright red Rubi is easy to track through the graphic panels’ luxuriant and otherwise accurately detailed flora and fauna.

A must-read for lovers of ants, ecosystems…and unlikely friendships. (Graphic fantasy/nonfiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews

Graphic novel fans, lovers of nonfiction, budding ecologists, and readers looking for their next great obsession will be buzzing around this title for years to come.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A captivating look at ants that is also a story of learning to be a true friend; great for future entomologists, graphic novel readers, and those who love buddy narratives.” — School Library Journal

“Snappy dialogue [and] excellent pacing. Thoroughly engrossing.” — Horn Book Magazine

“Vibrant drawings and Hosler’s enthusiasm and knowledge of the natural world combine to form this cheerfully gross depiction of how ants feed and incubate larvae, preserve food, or become food sources themselves, with poop playing a pivotal role in many of Rubi’s activities.” — Publishers Weekly

“A truly lovely coming-of-age tale buzzing with bee facts, this is a honey pot for budding entomologists, naturalists, and scientists of all variety.” — Booklist

“Vivid colors and playful use of varying perspectives and panel sizes work well to convey both tension and exuberance. Readers who never gave much thought to what is going on under their feet will likely want to get down low and observe some ants at work, and if it makes them be a little more careful with insect lives and natural habitats, so much the better.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher