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Bug Girl #1
Bug Girl
Nothing prepares a girl for battling the forces of evil like the first year of middle school...
Amanda Price adores all things bug-related—from spiders to mantises—like, seriously loves them. Unfortunately most of her fellow sixth-graders do not share her invertebrate obsession. They’re grossed out by it. Especially Amanda’s ex-best friend, Emily, who thinks Amanda is creepy weird.
But when mysterious invaders menace the town of Oyster Cove and take both Amanda and Emily’s mothers captive, Amanda unexpectedly develops amazing insectile powers! Newly equipped with antennae and a glistening exoskeleton she uncovers a secret that changes everything.
Now Amanda has to act fast or her town and her mom are doomed! There’s just one complication…she needs Emily’s help.
Suddenly Amanda’s worst enemy becomes her best ally, but working together may be even harder than saving their town from being squashed like a…well…
BUG GIRL. She’s got the buzz.
Amanda Price adores all things bug-related—from spiders to mantises—like, seriously loves them. Unfortunately most of her fellow sixth-graders do not share her invertebrate obsession. They’re grossed out by it. Especially Amanda’s ex-best friend, Emily, who thinks Amanda is creepy weird.
But when mysterious invaders menace the town of Oyster Cove and take both Amanda and Emily’s mothers captive, Amanda unexpectedly develops amazing insectile powers! Newly equipped with antennae and a glistening exoskeleton she uncovers a secret that changes everything.
Now Amanda has to act fast or her town and her mom are doomed! There’s just one complication…she needs Emily’s help.
Suddenly Amanda’s worst enemy becomes her best ally, but working together may be even harder than saving their town from being squashed like a…well…
BUG GIRL. She’s got the buzz.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2017
15 people are currently reading
509 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 2, 2017
This book is great! Surprise after surprise. I am a complete nerd with a capital "N" and loved every buggy page. I couldn't put it down and hope more sequels are coming! This is a terrific read for any middle schooler, nerd or not, boy or girl. At last a truly original story that gets away from the boring formula of super heroes and presents a fun, believable, and strong girl who solves her own problems while dealing with middle school issues. Five stars and then some!
March 29, 2017
Got to read an ARC of this awesome adventure for middle graders and loved it! Amanda is such a cool main character who overcomes bullies and so much more on her super-heroic journey. The diverse cast of supporting characters was also really cool to encounter. I would recommend this as a great read for kids with some very positive messages, and even some life lessons about dealing with the tribulations of middle school.
April 8, 2017
This book was an incredibly fun read! The characters and story were a creative twist on your stereotypical superhero story, and the diversity throughout was extremely pleasing. Being a middle schooler myself, I feel that this properly represents some of the struggles and triviations that certain people have to go through. A very charming book, I would definitely recccomend it to people who want an cute and interesting story. 10/10 will cosplay as Bug Girl in the near future!
April 10, 2017
Such a fun read! High adventure, super hero shenanigans, preteen angst and lots and lots of bugs! Bug Girl is a funny and smart book that will feed your need for an exciting good-versus-evil story as well as real life scientific info about all our favorite bugs AND a strong female protagonist. What's not to love!?
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April 22, 2017Amanda discovers that she has bug-like superhero powers. The town of Oyster Cove, where she lives has been invaded and her mother and her mother's friend have been captured. Amanda must use her powers to rescue them, but she also has to work alongside a schoolmate who she doesn't get along with. This book is filled with action and excitement and I will recommend it to my students who enjoy hero and evil villain stories.
July 14, 2017
A girl who loves bugs? That was enough to captivate me. Amanda is a likable character, who despite being mobbed and bullied because of her tastes and interests is still able to rise above it all to higher ground -- like her beloved insects! But a bug-loving superhero? Who is also brave and selfless and rises above her own insecurities to save the day? My daughter and I were smitten! We both laughed out loud as we read this exciting story. We were angry and indignant with the way Amanda's ex-best-friend and her cohorts treated such a nice person, we were scared for and worried about Amanda's mother, and we cheered out loud for Bug Girl!
I received a copy of this book from McMillan Children's Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of this book from McMillan Children's Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 5, 2018
Bug Girl found her way into my heart even when I didn't want her to. Generally not my type of story but reading it for my elementary library. Amanda Price is a royal A+ nerd, learning to navigate middle school where her old best friend Emily Battlefield has completely dropped her from her social circle with no explanation for Amanda. With her new friend, Vincent Verbiglia by her side she starts off on an adventure that pulls Emily in too. It's great to see girls being the heroes. I loved the sidebars and graphics on the pages and the story telling was easy to follow. One disappointment was that Benjamin Harper and Shara Hines Stephens are letting Emily continue to treat Amanda poorly in public but there's hope in the sequel that Emily learns a lesson in true bullying.
March 25, 2020
I think Harper and Steven’s book was Amazing! I love superhero books. I really enjoyed the action in this book. It’s about a girl named Amanda who loves bugs, and then an evil dude takes over and she discovers her mom is a superhero. Her X best friend (due to popularity rate) has to work with her. Their moms are best friends and are both superheroes and get captured and it’s up to Amanda (loves bugs) and Emily (super popular) to stop him and get their mom’s back. This made me feel very intrigued and really feeling the superhero vibe. I think this book was really well written. It has a lot of useful words and even though it’s a book for kids it’s written like a book for grown-ups. It was a very exciting book. “it appeared that the entire city had been invaded by glowing green monsters” this quote shows you how exiting this book is. So, that’s what I think of bug girl. It also teaches you a little bit about bugs. I recommend this book highly. I just can’t wait to read the second one!
September 4, 2019
Alright, I'm calling it. It's taken MONTHS to get halfway and I want to slap every character but Amanda and probably ber BFF. I was reading this with my six-year-old, who loves long, plotful stories and has a pretty big vocabulary for her age, and she has gravitated away from this book as well; I'll see the half-read book and say, "Oh! We should get back to that!" and she will look briefly excited and say, "Yeah!" ...and then go back to pretty much any other book first.
Good things about this book: The protagonist is an unrepentently smart nerd who loves bugs, her BFF is an equally nerdy dude and their friendship is pretty great; the superpowers are fun, and the Dragonfly and Megawoman mythos is a fun hook. The vocabulary is absolutely WAY above most middle school levels, and as someone who enjoys unpretentious use of large words and complex turns of phrase, I LOVE it. I spent a lot of time enjoying Harper's writing style.
Ok, here's why we're stopping:
1) First, Emily is an ENORMOUS shitbird, and I'm not sorry to swear about it. Like, yes, kids can be absolutely horrible. As a child that was bullied relentlessly through literally every year of school, I am paaaainfully aware of this. HOWEVER, what the everlovong hell is this, "Our parents are besties, so they make us hang out... and neither one of them is willing to do ANYTHING to stop it." crap? Just, no. My kid is tight friends with the children of two of my close friends, and you'd better believe if one of them did this, I'd be like, sit your kid's bratty ass down and fix that shit, Karen, because my kid absolutely does not deserve this treatment. Part of it seems like moms are blissfully ignoring the extent of the problem, which is an awesome trope. Ugh. Extreme parenting fail. Moving on.
1a) And that's not to say that Emily is not salvageable; Kids change and mature, she may actually become not horrible one day. But dude. Do your growing and changing FAR from my kid. Far. Preferably in a therapist's office.
2) The main badasses are all women, but all of their support characters are dudes, without whom they would be lost, and they seem to have veerrrry little agency. Amanda just... follows along this path of hapless heroism, following whatever new rule seems to be in place. Mom disappears? Poppie walks in and is like, your mom would never have made it without my rules and clearly neither can you. I buy that all superheroes could benefit from Guy in a Chair, but it's a little too much support here.
Also? HE CAN EXPERTLY SEW A SUPER WARDROBE IN AN HOUR. Are you, like me, someone who also owns more than one sewing machine and has been known to make many amazing creative things? Because if you are, you and I both know that an hour would be about enough time to decide on what fabric, make a pattern and maybe, if you're very lucky, cut the pieces out. More like, six to ten hours of sewing and swearing and seam ripping and then MAYBE you get "omg, thank you it's BEAAAAUTIFUL". Maybe.
3) Aforementioned vocabulary, and this one kills me. I liked it; kid, not so much. There are some really dense paragraphs that saw her sort of drift away into space, only to come back for the bug fact or for an action. Often when we read books that are above her level, we stop to discuss words, skipping over some where the context was enough, with the assumption that we'll get there in a couple of years, nbd. This one has a lot of that though; like if I stopped for every dense paragraph, we would never get through. And we have literally not gotten through as it is!
4) Finally, I'm not sure I care. I'm going to go skim the end, but I have no burning desire to find out what happens.
Anyway, bottom line, this book is not terrible and the premise is good, but the cartoonish disregard for bullying is extremely dated, and the main character could use some more opportunities to make her own decisions and come to her own conclusions.
Good things about this book: The protagonist is an unrepentently smart nerd who loves bugs, her BFF is an equally nerdy dude and their friendship is pretty great; the superpowers are fun, and the Dragonfly and Megawoman mythos is a fun hook. The vocabulary is absolutely WAY above most middle school levels, and as someone who enjoys unpretentious use of large words and complex turns of phrase, I LOVE it. I spent a lot of time enjoying Harper's writing style.
Ok, here's why we're stopping:
1) First, Emily is an ENORMOUS shitbird, and I'm not sorry to swear about it. Like, yes, kids can be absolutely horrible. As a child that was bullied relentlessly through literally every year of school, I am paaaainfully aware of this. HOWEVER, what the everlovong hell is this, "Our parents are besties, so they make us hang out... and neither one of them is willing to do ANYTHING to stop it." crap? Just, no. My kid is tight friends with the children of two of my close friends, and you'd better believe if one of them did this, I'd be like, sit your kid's bratty ass down and fix that shit, Karen, because my kid absolutely does not deserve this treatment. Part of it seems like moms are blissfully ignoring the extent of the problem, which is an awesome trope. Ugh. Extreme parenting fail. Moving on.
1a) And that's not to say that Emily is not salvageable; Kids change and mature, she may actually become not horrible one day. But dude. Do your growing and changing FAR from my kid. Far. Preferably in a therapist's office.
2) The main badasses are all women, but all of their support characters are dudes, without whom they would be lost, and they seem to have veerrrry little agency. Amanda just... follows along this path of hapless heroism, following whatever new rule seems to be in place. Mom disappears? Poppie walks in and is like, your mom would never have made it without my rules and clearly neither can you. I buy that all superheroes could benefit from Guy in a Chair, but it's a little too much support here.
Also? HE CAN EXPERTLY SEW A SUPER WARDROBE IN AN HOUR. Are you, like me, someone who also owns more than one sewing machine and has been known to make many amazing creative things? Because if you are, you and I both know that an hour would be about enough time to decide on what fabric, make a pattern and maybe, if you're very lucky, cut the pieces out. More like, six to ten hours of sewing and swearing and seam ripping and then MAYBE you get "omg, thank you it's BEAAAAUTIFUL". Maybe.
3) Aforementioned vocabulary, and this one kills me. I liked it; kid, not so much. There are some really dense paragraphs that saw her sort of drift away into space, only to come back for the bug fact or for an action. Often when we read books that are above her level, we stop to discuss words, skipping over some where the context was enough, with the assumption that we'll get there in a couple of years, nbd. This one has a lot of that though; like if I stopped for every dense paragraph, we would never get through. And we have literally not gotten through as it is!
4) Finally, I'm not sure I care. I'm going to go skim the end, but I have no burning desire to find out what happens.
Anyway, bottom line, this book is not terrible and the premise is good, but the cartoonish disregard for bullying is extremely dated, and the main character could use some more opportunities to make her own decisions and come to her own conclusions.
May 11, 2017
Bug Girl is the first book in a series by the same title by Benjamin Harper, Sarah Hines-Stephens, and Anoosha Syed. Amanda Price adores all things bug-related—from spiders to mantises. Unfortunately, most of her fellow sixth-graders do not share her invertebrate obsession. They’re grossed out by it. Especially Amanda’s ex-best friend, Emily, who thinks Amanda is creepy weird. But when mysterious invaders menace the town of Oyster Cove and take both Amanda and Emily’s mothers captive, Amanda unexpectedly develops amazing insect powers! Newly equipped with antennae and a glistening exoskeleton she uncovers a secret that changes everything. Now Amanda has to act fast or her town and her mom are doomed! There’s just one complication, she needs Emily’s help. Suddenly Amanda’s worst enemy becomes her best ally, but working together may be even harder than saving their town.
Bug Girl is a story that is not just about gaining superpowers and saving your home town. The real heart of the story is about Amanda being true to herself, and finding her way through the changes of middle school, and becoming a superheroes of course. I liked that Amanda faces bullying and social issues, but remains true to her interests and self rather than falling in line with the rest. The fact that her former best friend Emily has falling into step with the rest of the school makes that harder, but she finds her own way despite the loss of her best friend and the teasing that co,mes with having a passion about something that is not approved of by the popular crowd in middle school. Then when the super powers and conflict arise, she just continues to grow as a person, not just focusing on the powers. I really liked the coming of age tale, and the message of being true to yourself. The knowledge that we are all stronger than we know is a strong thread through the story as well. Readers that feel like they are on the outside, different, or bullied (which I think every one feels at some point) will definitely enjoy the read and connect with the characters.
Bug Girl is a charming story with a great deal of heart, and some serious action. I liked the blend of facts about insects and the fun adventure and growth that Amanda faces. I think this will be a win with elementary and middle school readers.
Bug Girl is a story that is not just about gaining superpowers and saving your home town. The real heart of the story is about Amanda being true to herself, and finding her way through the changes of middle school, and becoming a superheroes of course. I liked that Amanda faces bullying and social issues, but remains true to her interests and self rather than falling in line with the rest. The fact that her former best friend Emily has falling into step with the rest of the school makes that harder, but she finds her own way despite the loss of her best friend and the teasing that co,mes with having a passion about something that is not approved of by the popular crowd in middle school. Then when the super powers and conflict arise, she just continues to grow as a person, not just focusing on the powers. I really liked the coming of age tale, and the message of being true to yourself. The knowledge that we are all stronger than we know is a strong thread through the story as well. Readers that feel like they are on the outside, different, or bullied (which I think every one feels at some point) will definitely enjoy the read and connect with the characters.
Bug Girl is a charming story with a great deal of heart, and some serious action. I liked the blend of facts about insects and the fun adventure and growth that Amanda faces. I think this will be a win with elementary and middle school readers.
February 6, 2020
My eldest daughter picked up
Bug Girl
from the local library and we were all interested to see what it would bring. While my daughters both found parts somewhat exciting and both said that it was "good", they still had many questions about what was happening, why it was happening and how come the two heroines could do things at times, but not at other times.
I was of the same mind, although I was not drawn into it from the start and even though there were glimmers of exciting parts/passages; I felt there were too many parts where things had to be questioned.
Overall, its a book for kids, that they may or may not like depending on how much they want to question it.
I was of the same mind, although I was not drawn into it from the start and even though there were glimmers of exciting parts/passages; I felt there were too many parts where things had to be questioned.
Overall, its a book for kids, that they may or may not like depending on how much they want to question it.
June 7, 2017
Once I got past the middle school angst, this book provided a rollicking, funny good time. Amanda, aka Bug Girl, is a pure geeky delight as is her friend, Vincent, who has the best fashion sense.
Lots of fun along with surreptitious science facts.
You like bugs? Superheroes? Good vs. Evil? Then Bug Girl is for you!
Lots of fun along with surreptitious science facts.
You like bugs? Superheroes? Good vs. Evil? Then Bug Girl is for you!
June 14, 2017
This book was such a fun read! I'm excited to be working on the sequel!
June 21, 2017
Middle school is not the kindest place for anyone, but for sixth grader, Amanda Price, it's a pretty lonely place to be. Although Amanda has some friends, especially the short and supportive Vincent, she's often the object of ridicule by her classmates because of her affinity for bugs. Her former best friend Emily Battfield no longer speaks to her at school and joins others in ridiculing her and calling her Bug Girl. But when a mysterious invasion turns out to be a plot intended to kidnap the town's heroines, Dragonfly and Megawoman, after bringing them out of hiding, Amanda learns that she and Emily have a lot more in common than she ever dreamed and that there is a very good reason for her fondness for insects. Intermediate readers will enjoy seeing Amanda come into her own as she grows in confidence. They just might enjoy the descriptions of her insect-like appearance over the course of the book too. It will be fun to read the next installment of this superhero series. After all, heroes come in all sorts of sizes and packages.
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November 8, 2021I'm usually not a reader of middle-grade fiction, but that didn't stop me from loving Bug Girl. It's very silly and very fun and perfect summer reading. Bug Girl and her pal Vincent have adorable chemistry and the mean-girl details of Bug Girl's relationship with Emily are spot on (the characters might verge into the caricature category if there wasn't such truth in the details).
I'm going to foist this into the hands of every little reader who might be hiding a secret superhero identity.
I'm going to foist this into the hands of every little reader who might be hiding a secret superhero identity.
April 8, 2023
Five chapters in and I still couldn’t get into it. It was too difficult to bridge that gap in narrative distance.
A slow start and too much telling. The rhythm of the voice feels oftentimes clunky and sometimes monotonous. Skimmed ahead and it was more of the same.
This one is not for me. Couldn’t bring myself to continue given there’s a lot more other books I could be reading. Dnf.
A slow start and too much telling. The rhythm of the voice feels oftentimes clunky and sometimes monotonous. Skimmed ahead and it was more of the same.
This one is not for me. Couldn’t bring myself to continue given there’s a lot more other books I could be reading. Dnf.
January 27, 2018
My oldest gave this 4.5 stars and my youngest gave it 4 stars. It was an adventure with self discovery. For me it was a difficult read aloud; choppy. The language didn't flow smoothly but still worth the read.
June 8, 2018
I'm not sure the age this book is marketed to, but the writing is really wordy. The story line is interesting, but some of the word choices are really beyond what my 11 year old reads. It was an okay book that we did want to read to the end, but both of us agreed it was not a favorite.
June 6, 2017
I quite enjoyed this middle-grade story of Bug Girl. I love having on hand fun books for my grandchildren. This should make me a cool grandma.
June 13, 2017
Fun story, fun concept. The attack scenes droled on a bit for my liking, but otherwise a great example of a girl finding her strong!
July 9, 2019
It's really cool fun to read...
June 9, 2020
A great book for superhero lovers
August 27, 2021
Fun and funny!
October 27, 2025
i mean the bug facts were cute.
August 3, 2022
Emily And Amanda used to be friends . Now Emily is popular and Amanda is not. But Amanda doesn’t care. She has friends, like Vincent. It isn’t her fault that people faint because a bug hissed at them. ( i s seriously can’t believe that people do that.) Then everything goes wrong at Emily birthday party. I had no idea that bugs were so interesting!
It ends up that Ms. Price is a superhero,( did not see that coming) and Amanda has inherited her super powers. Yay! But sadly Amanda’s mom gets kidnapped at the same time. Boo! Also ms. Battfield is her partner. So now Amanda is forced to work with Emily. Oh dear. This going to a disaster.
I like that unlike a lot of books, the main character has no need to be popular. That’s so different. I like it.
Quotes
“Can’t have a hero going into battle if she can’t dodge a laser blast or two…”
“Listen, loser, do you mind if I just blow up this burrow so we can get on with our lives?”
“Amanda hoped this mob madness would end more quickly.”
It ends up that Ms. Price is a superhero,( did not see that coming) and Amanda has inherited her super powers. Yay! But sadly Amanda’s mom gets kidnapped at the same time. Boo! Also ms. Battfield is her partner. So now Amanda is forced to work with Emily. Oh dear. This going to a disaster.
I like that unlike a lot of books, the main character has no need to be popular. That’s so different. I like it.
Quotes
“Can’t have a hero going into battle if she can’t dodge a laser blast or two…”
“Listen, loser, do you mind if I just blow up this burrow so we can get on with our lives?”
“Amanda hoped this mob madness would end more quickly.”
Want to read
April 19, 2021Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews