Lydia Loves Bugs: A Children's Book About Insects

2026 CHILDREN'S BOOK COUNCIL HOT OFF THE PRESS PICK

Discover the wonderful world of insects as Lydia collects bugs for show-and-tell in this picture book perfect for little entomologists.

Lydia loves bugs. She loves big, bouncing bugs and small, squiggly bugs. You know who doesn’t love bugs?

Lydia loves bugs, but her father and brother do not! Scared of all things creepy crawly, they often run away or set her bugs free.

But you know who else loves bugs? Lydia’s mom. She’s an entomologist, and she helps Lydia collect bugs for a very special day at school, when Lydia gets to show and tell her classmates all about her bugs. And now everybody loves bugs!

Packed full of adorable insects, Lydia Loves Bugs is the perfect picture book for any little nature lover or aspiring bug collector.

It has singing bugs and silent bugs, slightly stinky bugs and fly-away bugs, with an underlying message about being seen and understood. Every page comes with fun wordplay from Heidi Stemple and cute illustrations from Yuliya Pankratova that make creepy-crawly insects seem not so scary. And young readers can discover facts about their favorite bugs at the end of the book!

Who knows? After reading this story, even your child might develop a love for STEM and all things creepy-crawly.

Heidi E. Y. Stemple has authored almost 50 books, many of which include elements of the natural world. This is her first book about bugs! Moving from Moscow to London at five years old, Yuliya Pankratova went on to graduate with degrees in English literature and illustration, getting her first job in advertising and launching her own diversity and inclusion business. Maybe that’s why belonging is such a key theme in her picture books, which she illustrates with a painterly and dynamic style.