posted on 12 Aug 2025

Ant Life by Moesha Kellaway

I was delighted to see this fascinating picture book as my young grandsons and I are fans of the earlier publication which gave us a deep understanding and appreciation of slugs. As with slugs, I am not a natural fan of ants, despite their evident organisational skills, so I hoped to be persuaded to appreciate them more.

The back cover blurb indicates that this time we are going to get to know Anita, one particular worker ant who is anxious to find her perfect job. All the other ants in the colony think she is just lazy but she is lucky to have a twin sister, Chantal, who is determined to open her eyes to the many possibilities. When they visit the local job fair, Anita is astounded to find out just how many interesting options there are. This very light-hearted focus to the story gives us human readers masses of information about how ants have evolved and adapted across the world. Anita starts off looking for local opportunities but soon realises that the most interesting and rewarding work means she has to be prepared to travel.

We enjoyed looking at the detail of her underground home shown on the first double page spread. We spent some time lingering over the bookshelves wondering what the family members might be reading! Anita isn’t that impressed with a potential job in the very busy but pleasant looking nursery, as it seems rather repetitive work. She even has illusions of grandeur, but the queen of the colony makes it known that this is impossible ( we did notice that a few of the pupa in cocoons already had designated crowns and then talked about why they might need more than one queen in waiting). We liked the change in page layout from landscape to portrait that gives us a flavour of life in the anthill and how each one of the workers contribute to keeping everything running smoothly.

Every turn of the page gave us more interesting information but we particularly liked these examples:

‘Flying ants have an extra heart at the base of each wing’

‘Ants have four times more smell receptors than other insects’

‘The world is a dangerous place, especially with humans around. Luckily there are about 2.5 million ants for every human ( yep, there’s roughly 20 quadrillion of us).’

All of the above made us want to investigate further, and I can imagine how the wealth of content on every page could be used by teachers to inspire in depth research and creative ways of recording individual findings. I realised that I had a very superficial knowledge of this subject and have learnt a lot that I can share with family and friends - always important to admit to children that adults need to keep learning.

We were all very impressed with the variety of architectural skills demonstrated by ants throughout the world. How amazing that a whole colony of acacia ants can live inside an acorn and that weaver ants make their treetop homes from the sticky silk produced from their bodies. We loved the way in which the information about ultimate combat ants who live in the Cambodian jungle was presented in Top Trumps card format. The undisputed favourite in this section was the exploding ant which apparently ‘grab an enemy and explode, covering them with toxic goo’.

I will leave you to find out which job Anita eventually decides to go for although it is quite a difficult decision. I dearly hope that this talented author / illustrator is planning to write many more stories as she has certainly changed my initially lukewarm perspective on the worlds of ants and slugs. I wonder if much maligned wasps also need a champion?

I strongly recommend this engaging, fact packed picture book published by Rocket Bird Books. It is available to buy from your local independent bookshop who will happily order a copy if not already on their shelves. Alternatively you can order direct from www.rocketbirdbooks.co.uk

 

Karen Argent

August 2025