A playful read-aloud board book for readers age 0-3, Who Ate the Little Bug? is filled with vivid colors and a tactile design of concentric die-cut circles that will entice very young readers into touching and engaging with its text.

The concept is simple. Each page introduces an animal that MIGHT have eaten the little bug. (But, as the reader discovers, it did not.) The book is thematically dense, packing multiple concepts into its terse text: the basic mystery, colors, and animals (some familiar, some not). For example, the reader encounters a white pelican, a gray elephant, blue fish, a pink flamingo, and more… In the center of the circles sits the little bug in question, a bright, red-and-black ladybug.

No spoilers here. Suffice it to say that the ending answers the title question with a fun, charming twist. And even once the mystery has been solved, young readers will delight in revisiting the bold images and satisfying cadence of the story again and again.

Almost everyone enjoys a good mystery. This charming board book lets the littlest readers have their own sweet mystery to chew on…perhaps even literally!

Who Ate the Little Bug?
Written and illustrated by Hector Dexet
Translated from the French
ISBN: 9798895091
April 12, 2025 Post Wave Children’s Editions

You can buy a copy here* or find a copy of it at a library.

*Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 130 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the much-loved Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year (nominated for the 2023 Eisner and Harvey Awards) and Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War (2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, 2023 Mosaic Prize winner, 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist and 2023 Harvey Award nominee). Accolades have also gone to her translations of Ellie in First Position (2024 ALA Top Ten Graphic Novels for Children), Magical History Tour: Vikings and Magical History Tour: Gandhi (both 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists), Luisa: Now and Then (2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2019) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Award; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018).