Beetle Boy by MG Leonard

The future looks bleak for Darkus Cuttle. He doesn’t have a bed to sleep in. Bullies have shaved his head. His father’s gone missing, and he’s starting his third school in five weeks. Then he gets adopted by an intelligent beetle - a beetle which has something important to say . . .

Every bug has its day in this middle grade adventure.

With the police stumped by dead ends, it’s down to the beetle and the boy to undertake their own investigation into the disappearance of Darkus’s father.

They uncover a sinister plot, of course, but they also discover the wonderful world of insects - and this is the beating thorax of the book. There are rhinoceros beetles, dung beetles, stag beetles, bombardier and blister beetles, jewel beetles, fireflies, and more. This novel is a showcase for beetles, their weapons, and their defensive powers.

I felt some of the shifts in point of view tripped the flow of the narrative, but arch-villain Lucretia Cutter is deliciously yucky and, like a cockroach, so difficult to vanquish.

Beetle Boy is a novel about friendship and standing up for nature. It’s achievement is getting us to stop and reconsider the insect world - seeing bugs not as icky, but as marvels of evolution and essential to the health of the planet.

Darkus’s adventure continue in Beetle Queen and Battle of the Beetles.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

The Highland Falcon Thief by MG Leonard & Sam Sedgman

The Book of Tiny Creatures by Nathalie Tordjman - all about insects, mollusks, and worms.