This is the book for kids who like bugs! The Ants, Grasshopper, and a host of six-legged creatures fill each page, all of them anatomically correct, yet clad in adorable hats and the occasional bowtie. Grasshopper is often portrayed as lazy and foolish, but in this version of the story, he is a social butterfly, constantly begging the Ants to spend time with him. Throughout the changing of the seasons, he invites them to go fishing, dance, play music, and picnic. His words trip across the page and on the tongue, only to be shut down by the Ants’ no-nonsense refusals. The fable usually ends with Grasshopper starving and shivering in the cold, but this grasshopper isn’t in any physical danger. He can dance the winter away in his leaf snowshoes, but he is clearly lonely, watching the Ants party inside their snug borrow. The official moral of the story is “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today,” but the real moral of this version of the story is that if you want to make friends, you need to meet them where they are. – Krishni Burns