Craft Roach by Rachel Burke

Craft Roach - 34 pages

Rachel Burke, Daniel Gray-Barnett (Illustrator)

Summary (From Goodreads)

Craft Roach makes the other bugs 
feel very tense and stressed.
Standing out? Being seen? 
They do not think it best.
 
But Craft Roach sees things differently,
has more than just an inkling –
that crawlies wouldn’t be so feared,
if all of them were twinkling …

Review

An adorable story about being yourself, with a cute craft at the end!  

I Eat Poop. A Dung Beetle Story by Mark Pett

I Eat Poop. A Dung Beetle Story by Mark Pett - 42 pages

Goodreads: 

Dougie has a secret: he’s not a ground beetle.
He’s a dung beetle, and he loves eating poop.

Dougie knows he should be proud. Dung beetles help process waste and do other extraordinary things! But Dougie also knows that if anyone at school saw his lunch, he’d be an outcast.

One day, the lunchroom bugs out over a classmate eating poop, and Dougie must make a choice. Can he stand up for his friend—and for his true self?

I Eat Poop. is packed with important social emotional learning themes and is great for classroom or at home discussion. Read I Eat Poop. for conversations about:

*Bullying and being kind
*Standing up for your friends and speaking up for your beliefs
*Being proud of your culture and heritage
*Embracing diversity and accepting and celebrating differences

The book also includes incredible, STEM-related facts about bugs.

QQ Sweeper, v. 2-3 by Kyousuke Motomi

QQ Sweeper, v. 2 by Kyousuke Motomi - 192 pages
QQ Sweeper, v. 3 by Kyousuke Motomi - 192 pages

These two volumes complete the QQ Sweeper trilogy.  To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to read them as I wasn't really all that drawn into the first volume. However, the story got better as it continued.  The mystery of Fumi's background was interesting enough that I might even try to pick up the sequel Series Queen's Quality.

The Fairy's Mistake by Gail Carson Levine

The Fairy's Mistake by Gail Carson Levine - 87 pages

This is a retelling of the fairy tale of the frogs and pearls.  A good girl is rewarded by a fairy by dropping jewels every time she speaks.  Her mean sister is punished by spitting out bugs and snakes when she speaks.  However, neither the reward nor the punishment turn out to be what the fairy intended.
This retelling is pretty good.  It was actually one of the better tellings of this fairy tale that I have read before.  (I think I've seen more twisted versions of this tale than regular versions.)  Another great fairy tale retelling for kids.