Elinor Wonders Why: Bugging Out

by Jorge Cham (Creator), Daniel Whiteson (Creator)

Elinor learns about butterflies as she makes the perfect costume for Insect Day! Elinor knows just what type of insect she’s going to be for Insect a butterfly! She loves butterflies’ wings and all their colors. She plans how she’ll make her costume, with her dad’s cutting cardboard, painting the wings and gluing the pieces together. But there’s something she needs to find out before she can get started. She knows butterflies have two antennae and four wings. But how many legs do they have? Luckily, Elinor is a pro at making observations. With her magnifying glass in hand, she goes to the garden in search of answers — and finds some new questions along the way! Part of the early reader graphic novel series from Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson, the creators and producers of the popular Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS television series Elinor Wonders Why , this fun STEM story will inspire curiosity in every child while teaching them scientific skills. Age-appropriate facts and key vocabulary words are interspersed throughout the pages, and an activity at the end of the book shows how to make a butterfly feeder. With its bright, colorful pages and simple text, this book is a great choice for introducing the graphic novel format to early readers. It complements life science lessons on insects, characteristics of living things and needs of living things.

Genres: Science, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

Published June 6, 2023

About the author

Jorge Cham is a Chinese-Panamanian post-doc best known for his popular newspaper and web comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD Comics). He first started drawing PhD Comics as a graduate student at Stanford University, and has since been syndicated in several university newspapers and in three published book collections.

Jorge Cham received his Bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech in 1997, and earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford. He subsequently worked at Caltech as an instructor and as a researcher on neural prosthetics.

In 2005, Cham began an invited speaking tour of over 80 major universities delivering his talk titled "The Power of Procrastination". In this lecture, Cham talks about his experiences creating the comic strip and examines the sources of grad students' anxieties. He also explores the guilt and the myths associated with procrastination and argues that in many cases it is actually a good thing.

Reviews

[David]

Cute characters use Science to have fun. These books are adapted from a TV series. Elinor/Rabbit; Olive/Elephant; Ari/Bat are dressing up for "Insect Day" at school, so they are doing observations about the insect they want to be, so that their costume matches their chosen insect.

Very colorful graphics here. I could see where a science kid in elementary school would latch onto this entire series (like I am).

I'm sure the TV show can be fun. The age group for this book (children) match well to the simple text here. Nice appendix on how to do slightly more with this idea.

Easy 4*

[Jeanie]

I am enjoying the Elinor Wonders Why series. Do you have a kiddo that ask why all the time? That enjoys learning? They will love this series and the characters that go with it. Elinor is part of the three amigos. Olive - the Elephant who has her trunk in in a book. She loves words. Ari is a joker who likes to make people laugh and of course Elinor who is curious about everything. All of her questions start with a why. My granddaughter would love all three of these characters because she is just like them.

It was insect day at school and each of the children had to come dressed up as their favorite insect. While dressing up as their favorite insect, Elinor, Olive and Ari learn something about that insect. It is a fun way of learning and applying! Such a great series for both children and parents.

A special thank you to Kids Can Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

[Jenn]

Elinor Wonders Why: Bugging Out is an age-appropriate STEM story that teaches kids about insects. This graphic novel-style book has bright colourful pictures that capture the attention of little readers. There are also scientific explanations written in accessible language so that while the children are reading they are also learning. The best kind of learning for children is when they don't realize they are actually learning something, but instead they think they are just having fun.

As a parent, I enjoyed the fact that this story was easy to read for my emerging reader and I also liked the fact that there was an instructional piece at the end for how to make a butterfly feeder - my children really enjoyed that part.

Thank you to the publishers for allowing me to share this advance copy with my children. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Theediscerning]

This small series for small scientists gains two more volumes, one pleasantly having the rabbit character (who is of course the same size as her elephant and bat friends) explore butterflies and make a costume so she can dress as one for the school's insect day, and the other much more clumsily discussing shells and natural protection, through the use of eggs, armadillos, and coconuts – oh, and the need to get a fragile cup-cake to school. I guess that while the elephant has a satchel none of these characters have heard of a lunch-box. Certainly the butterfly one is a bit more coherent and gains from not going all over the place with different looks at the same, ill-defined subject. But they don't do under-eights science too badly.

[Angie]

This sweet picture book is written in comic book/graphic novel style and merges both fiction and nonfiction elements, truly bending all genres and book types haha! The story follows Elinor, an inquisitive girl who loves learning about the world around her. When her teachers tells the class that tomorrow they must dress as an insect, Elinor goes on an inquiry adventure with her father learning all about butterflies. This is a fun and informative book that will definitely appeal to young readers in a fun and unique way. I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to checking out the others in this series! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

[Amanda Sanders]

“Tomorrow is insect day, so come dressed as your favorite insect.” said no teacher ever. This is a pretty bad lesson plan idea. Elinor makes her elaborate costumes and does her research in one night. She uses nature instead of books for research which is also time consuming. Most of the story is contrived to force some insect facts into a fiction book. It does have good points. The illustrations of the butterfly drinking are quite good. Making a butterfly feeder experiment at the end sounds fun.

[Sheena Mae]

I read this book with my daughter and I was very impressed with how there was lots of learning in the book. It was great because there were parts with a magnifying glass that gave the reader extra or more detailed information. It was also very cool to see a hands on part at the end of the book with a science experiment/craft idea. My daughter was very interested in trying it out.

Dani’s Review (age 8) I enjoyed when they were all in their costumes and Elinor used her butterfly tongue. I can’t wait to try out the butterfly feeder at the end. Rating: 👍🏻

[Wayne McCoy]

“Elinor Wonders Why: Bugging Out“ by Jorge Cham, and Daniel Whiteson is a graphic novel based on a PBS series about science.

Elinor is pretty curious about everything in her world but especially butterflies. When her school has an Insect Day, Eleanor wants to make the perfect costume based on her favorite insect: the butterfly. Along the way she learns about butterflies.

This was a fun STEM story for young readers. There is a good story and great characters and some things to learn along the way. The art is fine and I think young readers will really enjoy this.

[Ag]

What a short and sweet book! This is an easy read with the most beautiful drawings, a graphic novel where Elinor, a very curious girl of unknown species who lives a very human-like life, gets to know everything about butterflies. She has so many questions and all of those get answered and that happens in a fun and entertaining way. The text is short and easy to comprehend, each drawing complimenting the text.

[sinag]

5/5 stars!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love this Elinor Wonders Why series! It has cute plots and interesting information about things in nature that peeks at the curiosity of Elinor. In this one, the information surrounds insects and specifically, butterflies. I think children will really enjoy this book and can do the observations just like Elinor.

[Ryan]

This is another book in the Elinor Wonders series. It’s part picture book and part graphic novel. This time the kids are looking at insects and what they want to come to school dressed as for insect day. These are fun and well done. They manage to keep a reader’s attention and teach something at the same time.

[Trina]

Brightly colored illustrations not only help tell the story they also show the facts clearly in a cute way. I love the little facts in the book and how the more scientific word was defined in a way that kiddos can understand and the pronunciation was provided.

[Ileana Renfroe]

A fun story where Elinor makes her butterfly costume for school. The illustrations were well done and the overall story was fun to read. You even get a bonus at the end of the story.

Great job!

[Stacey Feehley]

So cute! My 5 year old loved this one and learning about different insects!

Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for my ARC!