Pelican Publishing Children's Books

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. . . . Young readers will love hearing about the fly and all the other creepy-crawly bugs the old lady gulps down in this fanciful feast based on the traditional song. With a taste for slugs, the old lady also enjoys a poached roach and a squirmy worm during the course of the story. And a surprise ending reveals that this isn't just any old lady.

A pesky mosquito gets his due. Mosquito is a nuisance to all the animals as he buzzes about the forest. With fun word play, including rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, each critter expresses its annoyance with him. Finally, Mosquito bothers the wrong neighbor, who ends the insect's career as resident pest. A list of mosquito facts appears at the end of this humorous children's story.

The greedy spider gets what's coming!

Long ago, all spiders were as round as the sun—and Anansi was the roundest of all. Anansi was very clever, but he was also very lazy, and he loved to eat. One day, hungry Anansi travels from village to village to eat with them. Each village asks Anansi to help make the food, but he would rather be lazy. Anansi leaves one end of a silken string from his web with each village, ties the other end around his waist, and asks the villagers to tug the string when the food is ready. He goes to another village, and another, and another . . . What will happen when all the food is done? This lively retelling of the Ghanaian folktale will delight all readers from ages 1 to 110.

If it’s May in Louisiana, the termites are swarming! This counting book will make toddlers and their families laugh—and squirm—as they recognize this annual buggy invasion.

Based on a song from author and illustrator Johnette Downing’s album Boogie Woogie Bugs, the singsong rhyming text introduces babies and youngsters to the wonderful world of bugs.

Illustrated with Johnette’s bold, bright foam and paper collages, the bugs seem to hop, skip, fly, and jump right off the board book pages and into the hearts of little listeners in this entertaining and educational counting adventure!