Huge bird-eating spiders. Massive teams of tiny termites building high-rises out of mud. Get ready for a big, bold compendium of bugs sure to have kids gleefully shouting “Eww!”

Whether you’re nibbled by a lizard

or you’re gobbled by a frog,

for a bug, being eaten is part of the job!

What was the first animal to walk on land? Or fly through the sky? The answer is a bug—and for every human on earth today, there are more than 200 million of these ubiquitous creatures. From the New Zealand glowworms whose slimy “fairy lights” catch flies and gnats to the earthworms whose little tunnels bring water and air to plants, from the ladybugs keeping vegetable gardens safe from pesky pests to the common fly working as clean-up crew for the stinky stuff we’d rather not think about, this bright, bouncy introduction to bugs shows the ways that we need them more than they need us. Written with Simon Mole’s trademark energy and illustrated with Adam Ming’s pitch-perfect humor, this collection of thirty witty poems about these often-misunderstood creatures provides all the facts kids could want to know about bugs, and then some. Readers seeking practical tips on how to help bugs will find information in the back matter.