Andrew Smith’s young adult novel Grasshopper Jungle is set in the small town of Ealing, Iowa, where Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things. This is not your everyday novel of the apocalypse, though it has the essential elements: a (dead) mad scientist, a fabulous underground bunker and gobs of messy violence. In fact, Grasshopper Jungle is so evocative, it ended up on our list of the Best Teen Books of 2014. We talk to Smith in this week’s Kirkus TV interview about the end of the world and other fun topics!
