The Spelling Bee

by Michael Rock

Marty the Ant, and his sister, Millie the Ant, are in for a surprise when they take part in the school spelling bee. Marty has never done well in past spelling bees but studies hard this time; Millie, meanwhile, is the defending champ and doesn't think she needs to study.

29 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 22, 2012

Reviews

[Heidi Angell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the moral lesson that the author is imparting, however the way he goes about imparting it is a bit convoluted. At first the lesson is that if you don't work hard then you cannot achieve your goals. Then the message is that even when you work hard, you may not necessarily achieve your goals, but you will get more than if you didn't work hard. Then there was this random 2 of the last three ants were "special" one because he was a different color than the other ants, the other because he was born without a leg. We are introduced to these ants at the beginning in passing, but they end up becoming the most important characters of the story toward the end. And only at the end do they become anything more than stock characters. It was very confusing. I was also troubled by the fact that this book is clearly supposed to be educational and yet the writer had several grammar errors.

I had my youngest read it as well, and he just shrugged and said it was ok.