Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee

May 20, 2022
Grades 1-3 The services of the noble Sir Ladybug are once again in demand, this time in dealing with a bullying queen bee. Pell (roly-poly/herald), Sterling (snail/steed), and Sir Ladybug are enjoying a relaxing morning when a royal grasshopper lands in their midst with a summons from "the Queen Bee, the . . . the perilous, querulous, meanest-you've-seen bee!" They hurry to the hive--a cross section shows its five levels (honey, the queen's court, the queen's tennis court, the queen's basketball court, and jail)--where Queen Bee orders Sir Ladybug to join her royal knights and then has Pell and Sterling tossed in jail. Unable to espouse the bullying philosophy of the queen's knights, Sir Ladybug soon joins his friends behind bars. How will the honorable trio get out of this one? Tabor's fast-paced sequel to Sir Ladybug (2022) keeps all the charm of the first book, and it delivers a common sense anti-bullying message. The simple illustrations play up humorous moments and clever details for yet another entertaining read with plenty of heart.

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January 1, 2022
A gentle but fiercely loyal ladybug knight is joined by his faithful herald (a roly-poly bug who gets a little nervous sometimes but loves to loudly tell anyone who'll listen how great his friends are) and his steed/squire (a snail with a surprisingly spacious shell and a love of adventure) in Geisel Award-winning (for Fox at Night) and Caldecott honoree (for Mel Fell, rev. 3/21) Tabor's first two installments of a graphic-novel series for the early-reader set. These small-scale quests are packed with referential jokes and friendly banter as the trio heeds the call of creatures facing trouble, including themselves. It takes teamwork and problem-solving, for example, to stop a hungry chickadee from eating them for dinner. Sometimes it's good deeds that save the day, but sometimes the only solution to a big problem is an exceptionally delicious lemon cake. And you never know when the tale might be briefly interrupted (chapters titled "Interlude") by, for example, a poem celebrating Sir Ladybug in the style of William Carlos Williams. The neat and precise illustrations reflect the warm, understatedly funny tone of the stories, with soft colors and simply but expressively drawn creatures. Tabor's celebration of friendship will have readers joining Pell the Roly-Poly Herald in loudly singing Sir Ladybug's praises.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)