SEVEN CURIOUS ANTS

A group of insects scopes out new spots to live.

Upon leaving their crowded anthill, seven ants travel single file through its intricately ordered tunnels on their way to ask wise Mole what to do. Mole, snug in his tiny, trinket-filled den, tells them to keep going and “follow the sun.” They head up and up along a tree trunk until they reach a “red orb,” an apple inhabited by a “chubby creature.” One ant decides to join this plump, voracious caterpillar in the palpably damp interior, waving goodbye with “juice-sticky” feet. The rest of the ants continue their vertical voyage, finding new homes with delightfully improbable company, one inside a busy beehive, another beneath a sleeping owl’s pillow. After a kerfuffle with a spider, one ant even decides to head back home. Familiar touchstones of children’s literature are plentiful here—the reiterative quest, the repeated counting of the ants, and the curious habitats of the animals they meet. Playfully discursive narration lets readers linger on each scene, savoring the accompanying artwork. Details inside the various homes add whimsy—for instance, The Goldfinch and The Raven are stacked atop the owl’s dresser. Yoon’s offset lithography color technique adds a mesmerizing textural quality at once richly organic and highly organized, a style well suited to its central septet of adventurous arthropods.

A creative, confident spin on classic picture-book themes.