Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

A girl named Amariyah offers a tutorial in ant-walking: "STEP ONE / Find Ant"; "STEP TWO / Politely Introduce Yourself"; etc. The steps contain tips, rules, and other hand-lettered-looking text elements, some hard to read. This visual confusion undermines the book's abundant humor, exemplified by Amariyah, who has the pluck of Beverly Cleary's Ramona and the hairstyle of Alice Cooper. Glos.

Kirkus Reviews

Some children have lemonade stands; the protagonist in this debut promotes ant-walking tours.Young entrepreneur Amariyah has paper-white skin, a lanky mop of scribbly black hair, and a crooked smile. Copies of this how-to guide are stacked near her booth. The nine-step process, elucidated with tips and rules, makes up the majority of the narrative, starting with finding an ant and introducing yourself: "Don't be antsy. Ants can smell fear with their ANTennae." Irregularly formed headings and text look like a child's writing, adding to the handmade aesthetic. Gray watercolor washes—sometimes fleshed out with trees or buildings—form the backdrop, with spots of color highlighting important details such as the Expert Walker's chartreuse dress and her grandmother's magenta nails. Some sections include footnotes that refer to appendices, where readers can learn actual ant anatomy in order to avoid harmful leash placement. At the climax, several spreads reveal what happens when an ant-walker and a ladybug-walker (also paper-white, with spiky black ponytails) become entangled in a colorful snarl of threads: ice cream, friendship, and an insect funeral are elements of the aftermath. Luckily, the backmatter also covers respectful burials. While not everyone will be drawn to the gray palette, the occasional sense of emptiness, and the disheveled caricatures, budding entomologists (and plenty of regular kids) will delight in the focus on these commonly seen insects.Be prepared for leash requests—so convincing is this guidebook. Teachers may also appreciate it as a humorous model when explaining elements of informational text. (appendices, glossary) (Picture book. 4-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The narrator of this off-the-wall guide is a girl named Amariyah, who has a jumble of ink lines for hair and an unshakeable belief in her expertise as an ant walker. She offers nine steps to help readers replicate her success, although her approach isn-t without hiccups: when she coaxes an ant onto a leash (-Tie the smallest bow in the universe then secure the leash between the ant-s thorax and head-), the insect looks dubious about the whole enterprise, and Amariyah unwisely commits herself to walking an entire hungry colony (-repeat steps two through seven three thousand and twenty-eight times-). Everything comes to a screeching, tangled halt when she collides with a peer who has styled herself as a ladybug walker-a scene rendered as a glorious mess of strings, ants, ladybugs and splotches of red and green-but a friendship is forged over a solemnly staged bug funeral and ice cream cones (-Celebrate when you reach your goal-). Derby, making a highly original debut, offers sly comic timing and deadpan prose that feel right at home with her scratchily inked, goth-vibed art style. Ages 4-8. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Mar.)