Children’s books and activities
Bugs
Do you know any kids who are fascinated by “bugs” like bees, butterflies, beetles, ants, dragonflies, ladybugs, cicadas, spiders, and other arthropods? We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about your favorite bugs.
Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such asbugs, birds, and animals. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.
You might also want to explore our free toolkits: Bug Buddies and River Rangers.
Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Print List
A Bear, a Bee, and a Honey Tree
By: Daniel Bernstrom
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
When a hungry, fuzzy brown bear and a hive of angry bees come face to face, everybody’s abuzz!...
Addie Ant Goes on an Adventure
By: Maren Morris, Karina Argow
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Addie Ant travels from one garden bed to another on her first solo adventure. As she forges her...
Anansi The Spider: A Tale From the Ashanti
By: Gerald McDermott
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Have you ever wondered how the moon got where it is? According to this Ashanti tale, Nyame, the...
Ants
By: Mari Schuh
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Bees, Snails & Peacock Tails
By: Betsy Franco
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Lyrical language and textured collages poetically convey the wonder of patterns and shapes in...
Beetle Bop
By: Denise Fleming
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Bella Loves Bugs
By: Jess French
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Follow Bella, a girl who is passionate about bugs, on a day in her life at Forest School where...
Bompa’s Insect Expedition
By: David Suzuki, Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
It’s time for the twins to go on a nature expedition with Bompa. To their disappointment, they...
Bug Butts
By: Dawn Cusick
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
From blowing bubbles to spraying acid, the world’s insects do amazing things with this under-...
Bug City
By: Dahlov Ipcar
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Follow a whimsical day in the life of a Bug City family and learn how to identify a wide variety...
Bug Sandwich
By: Brady Smith
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Sick of how much bugs love to bite him, a boy is determined to return the favor. But as he...
Camilla, Super Helper
By: Julie Dillemuth
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
With summer comes sun, lemonade, and…drought? Camilla the Cartographer and Parsley’s bee friend...
Chocolate Chirp Cookies
By: Jenny Goebel
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
On a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion with his dad and sister, William spots a sign promoting a...
Cicada Symphony
By: Sue Fliess
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
There are about three thousand different kinds of cicadas on earth. Some species emerge from the...
Du Iz Tak?
By: Carson Ellis
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Du iz tak? What is that? As a tiny shoot unfurls, two damselflies peer at it in wonder...
Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems
By: Paul Janeczko
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Flight of the Honey Bee
By: Raymond Huber
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Follow the flight of a honey bee as she searches for nectar to sustain her hive and, along the...
Give Bees a Chance
By: Bethany Barton
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Not sure whether to high-five bees or run away from them? Well, maybe you shouldn’t high-five...
Hustle Bustle Bugs
By: Catherine Bailey
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Ready with their magnifying glass, camera, and scrapbook, two young sisters head into nature to...
I Eat Poop: A Dung Beetle Story
By: Mark Pett
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Dougie has a secret: he’s not a ground beetle. He’s a dung beetle, and he loves eating...
I Love Insects
By: Lizzy Rockwell
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
The girl in this story loves insects—how they look, how they sound, and how they move. Her...
Insect Detective
By: Steve Voake
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Right now, all around us, thousands of insects are doing strange and wonderful things: wasps are...
Insectlopedia
By: Douglas Florian
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Poetry
Learn through poetry about twenty-one insects that will bug or beguile kids. From swooping...
Sounds of the Wild: Bugs
By: Maurice Pledger
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The Ant and the Grasshopper
By: Rebecca Emberley
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
While hard at work on her chores, an ant hears the wonderful clickety click chirrup of music...
The Bees of Notre-Dame
By: Meghan Browne
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
High above the bustling streets and gardens of Paris is a little-known wonder: a cluster of...
The Butterfly Garden
By: Laura Weston
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The life cycle of a monarch butterfly begins with an egg and a feast by caterpillars; each...
The Girl Who Loves Bugs
By: Lily Murray
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Evie loves bugs, but no one around her seems to understand. While Evie would rather spend all...
The Honey Makers
By: Gail Gibbons
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The Honeybee Man
By: Lela Nargi
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book
By: Jerry Pallotta
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants
By: Philip Bunting
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
There are ten quadrillion ants in the world, and yet I bet you never thought they could teach...
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
By: Simms Taback
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Poetry
Everyone knows the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly, a spider, a bird, and even worse...
Waiting for Wings
By: Lois Ehlert
Age Level: 3-6 years old
What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon?
By: Rachel Ignotofsky
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Butterflies soar in the sunlight. While moths flutter under the moon and stars. Find out more...
Why Do We Need Bees?
By: Emily Bone
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Why do we need bees? Where do they live? Who's who in a beehive? This lift-the-flap book answers...
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
By: Verna Aardema
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
A retelling of a traditional West African tale that reveals how the mosquito developed its...
Wingmaker
By: Dave Cameron
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Gramma Tinker is an old caterpillar has an unusual technique for transforming into a moth. She...
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Print List
A Strange Place to Call Home
By: Marilyn Singer
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poetry
Of all the miracles of life, it is life’s persistence that astounds the most. In the endless...
Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective
By: David Biedrzycki
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Ants
By: Deborah Hodge
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Ants Rule: The Long and Short of It
By: Bob Barner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This is a colorful and fun-filled introduction to nonstandard measurement, comparison, and...
Begin with a Bee
By: Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Phyllis Root
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
By looking closely at the life cycle of one bee, Begin with a Bee helps readers of all ages...
Bug Scouts: Out in the Wild!
By: Mike Lowery
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Meet Doug, Abby, and Josh: the Bug Scouts! Doug and Abby love everything about being Bug Scouts...
Busy Builders
By: Roxie Munro
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The tiny creatures in this book are amazing builders. Get an inside look at the unique...
Butterflies
By: Seymour Simon
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Stunning full-color photographs and tantalizing text introduce these fascinating creatures and...
Butterflies Belong Here: A Story of One Idea, Thirty Kids, and a World of Butterflies
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
In this story of community conservation, a girl finds a home in a new place and a way to help...
Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner
By: Janice N. Harrington
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Crawly School for Bugs: Poems to Drive You Buggy
By: David Harrison
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poetry
Welcome to Crawly School for Bugs! Termites, stink bugs, gnats, and every insect in between...
Cricket in the Thicket: Poems about Bugs
By: Carol Murray
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Short poems present a range of familiar insects from crickets to Monarch butterflies. Each is...
Flutter and Hum: Animal Poems/Aleteo y Zumbido: Poemas de Animales
By: Julie Paschkis
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Short poems about animals appear in English and Spanish accompanied by textured illustrations...
Fly Guy Presents: Dinosaurs
By: Tedd Arnold
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Fly Guy and Buzz are ready for their next field trip as they visit a natural history museum to...
Insect: DK Eyewitness
By: Laurence Mound
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Become an eyewitness to the many different varieties of insects in this picture-led reference...
Invented by Animals: Meet the Creatures Who Inspired Our Everyday Technology
By: Christiane Dorion
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Often human scientists try and solve a problem or invent a new tool and they realise that...
It Starts with a Bee
By: Jennie Webber
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A rhyming text and detailed illustrations combine to reveal bees’ activity, culminating in a...
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
By: Carmen Agra Deedy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
A sweet retelling of the Cuban folktale, full of puns and a sprinkling of Spanish. When it is...
Mosquito Bite
By: Alexandra Siy, Dennis Kunkel
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Two children play hide and seek outdoors on a warm night. Little do they know that a culex, a...
My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis
By: Paul Meisel
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The narrator was born on May 17th, a “sunny spring day!” On May 19th, she ate lots of aphids but...
Name That Bug!
By: Demi Jackson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
There are many interesting bug body parts that give clues as to what kind of living thing it is...
Nature All Around: Bugs
By: Pamela Hickman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
This illustrated introduction to ants, honeybees, dragonflies, and more covers the basic body...
Nature Did It First: Engineering Through Biomimicry
By: Karen Ansberry
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Nature does it best…and did it first! Explore the ways we have looked to nature for brilliant...
Nature Log Kids: A Kid's Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences
By: DeAnna Brandt
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Over and Under the Pond
By: Kate Messner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Discover the plants and animals that make up the rich, interconnected ecosystem of a mountain...
Roberto: The Insect Architect
By: Nina Laden
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Ever since he was a wee mite (a termite, that is), Roberto has wanted to be an architect....
Skeletons and Exoskeletons
By: Julie Lundgren
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
This title explains how humans and animals have a skeleton to support the inner workings of...
Spiders and Their Webs
By: Darlyne Murawski
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A biologist introduces spiders and their webs through stunning full color close-up photographs...
The Bee Tree
By: Patricia Polacco
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When Mary Ellen gets bored with her reading, Grandpa knows a hunt for a bee tree is just what...
The Bee-Man of Orn
By: Frank Stockton
Age Level: 6-9 years old
An aged Bee-man lives contentedly among his insect friends, surviving on honey and the...
The Book of Brilliant Bugs
By: Jess French
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Earth’s creepy crawlies may be small, but they are far from boring! Learn how they contribute to...
The Buzz on Bees: Why Are They Disappearing?
By: Shelly Rotner, Anne Woodhull
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Bees have been around for over 65 million years but have been in decline since early in the 21st...
The Life and Times of the Honeybee
By: Charles Micucci
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The Life Cycle of a Honeybee
By: Bobbie Kalman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Learn about each stage of a honeybee's life cycle from egg to adult. Full-color photographs,...
The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive
By: Joanna Cole
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Readers know they're with Ms. Frizzle and her class when the bus is disguised as a bee and...
The Queen Bee
By: Grimm Brothers
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This is the timeless folktale of a young prince who undoes the terrible spell on a castle by...
What If There Were No Bees?
By: Suzanne Slade
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Grassland ecosystems can be found on nearly every continent. Countless animals and plants live...
Where Do Insects Live?
By: Molly Aloian
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Insects, like all living things, need a place to call home. Readers get a close-up look at...
Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs
By: Patricia Lauber
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
What do you and a tuna have in common? You are both part of a food chain that begins with green...
Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold
By: Joyce Sidman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
How animals survive — even thrive — in winter is presented in a variety of poetic forms, each...
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Print List
Beastly Bionics: Rad Robots, Brilliant Biomimicry, and Incredible Inventions Inspired by Nature
By: Jennifer Swanson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Scientists are turning to biomimicry, or engineering inspired by biology or nature, to make all...
Behold Our Magical Garden: Poems Fresh from a School Garden
By: Allan Wolf
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Poetry
There’s a lot more to gardens than meets the eye! In this collection of poems filled with fun...
Bugged: How Insects Changed History
By: Sarah Albee
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
There are about ten quintillion insects in the world—and some of them have affected human...
Bugs (A Day in the Life)
By: Jessica Ware
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Set over a 24-hour period, meet busy honeybees, transforming caterpillars, and an army of...
Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard
By: Loree Griffin Burns
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Anyone can get involved in gathering data for ongoing, actual scientific studies such as the...
Insect Bodies
By: Molly Aloian
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
There are more than a million species of insects living on Earth, and all insects have similar...
Insect Superpowers
By: Kate Messner
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This action-packed picture book about the incredible yet factual insect abilities found in the...
Insects: The Most Fun Bug Book
By: Sneed Collard
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This book gets creepy-crawly with many different kinds of insects, detailing their habitats,...
Leaf Litter Critters
By: Leslie Bulion
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Take a poetic tour through the duff and get the dirt on the tiny, fascinating critters that live...
Let’s Eat BUGS!
By: Judy Goldman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Eating bugs might sound unusual to children in the United States, but people all over the world...
Masterpiece
By: Elise Broach
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Marvin, a beetle, lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment....
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies
By: Joyce Sidman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Maria Merian was one of the first female entomologists and a woman who flouted convention in the...
Hands-on Activities
Build on what you’re learning together through books with these family-friendly activities, experiments, and crafts.
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Bee Dance
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Bee Hummer
Exploratorium -
Bee Thankful Smoothie
Start with a Book -
Beehive Model
Lawrence Hall of Science -
Bug Hunting
Go Explore Nature -
Bug Spotter
Woodland Trust -
Bugs at Night
National Wildlife Federation -
Busy Blossoms
National Wildlife Federation -
Butterfly Feeder
PBS Parents -
Flower Powder: How Pollination Works
Lawrence Hall of Science -
Flying Insects Spotter
Woodland Trust -
Hexagon Hunt
Lawrence Hall of Science -
How Bees Make Honey
Start with a Book -
How Bees See
Bumblebee Conservation Trust -
Insect Symmetry
National Wildlife Federation -
Insects in Action
National Wildlife Federation -
Nature Box
Little Pine Learners -
Nature in One Minute
National Wildlife Federation -
Nature Journal
Great Stems -
Outdoor Pollen Game
Bumblebee Conservation Trust -
Plant a Bee Garden
Let’s Lasso the Moon -
Pollinator Hunt
National Wildlife Federation -
Pond Dwellers
National Wildlife Federation -
Smell Like a Honeybee
PBS Parents -
Snug as a Bug: Animal Shelters
Lawrence Hall of Science -
Soda Can Vibrating Bug
Instructables -
Spy on Ants!
National Wildlife Federation -
Water Strider
Science Buddies -
Weaving a Food Web
Start with a Book -
Webby Wonders
National Wildlife Federation
Summer Writing
Give kids a chance to flex their writing muscles all summer long. Try one of these prompts, selected from our writing contest archives and other literacy organizations.
Great Websites for Kids
Dive deeper into topics of interest with these media-rich and interactive sites.
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Amazing Bees
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Ask Nature
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Bee "Waggle Dance" (PBS Nova)
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Beeswax Through History
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Bug Hunt
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BugGuide
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Bumblebee Conservation Trust
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Buzz About Bees
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Composting
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Create a game about life cycles
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Food webs and trophic levels
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Funny Names for Pest and Insects
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Great Sunflower Project: Citizen Pollinator Count
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How insects help keep ecosystems in balance | World Wildlife Fund
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Insect activities from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
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Insect Identification
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Microsculpture, the Insect Portraits of Levis Biss
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Native Buzz: Citizen Bee Mapping Project
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Online Exhibition: Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of L.A.
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Oxford University Museum of Natural History Learning Zone: Insects
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Pollination | BrainPOP
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Pollinator Game
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Pollinator.org
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Six-Legged Science: Unlocking the Secrets of the Insect World
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Summer Sounds: Insect Songs
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Waggle Dance of the Bees
Great Podcasts for Kids
Listen and learn with these podcasts especially for kids. These podcasts are free and easy to listen to from any device via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher — or from Listen Notes, a podcast search engine.
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Edible Insects Are on the Menu!
Wow in the World (NPR) -
How do monarch butterflies travel so far?
Brains On!
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The Scientific Buzz on Bees and Math
Wow in the World (NPR)
Educational Apps
Educational apps recommended by Common Sense Media and other trusted reviewers.
More Themed Resources
Growing Readers Tip Sheets
Simple activities for parents and kids to do together to build reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Read online or print the PDF.
