Sophia has loved bugs since a blue butterfly landed on her shoulder when she was 2 and visiting a butterfly conservatory with her mom. It stayed while they wandered through the conservatory, and had to be removed by a guard as they were leaving. Sophia immediately understood why - it was meant to be protected.
Her interest continued to grow as she did. She saw bugs wherever she went, read books about them, and was soon collecting them for show-and-tell in kindergarten. The kindergartners thought they were very cool. Collecting bugs for study while on jaunts around the neighborhood, she often took them home to the front porch.
Her love of bugs led to Sophia following one rule.
"I have just one rule:
ALL BUGS MUST LIVE.
If there's a mosquito
buzzing, I snatch it up in
a napkin and let it go.
We don't have
a flyswatter - we
have a fly net."
When her grade one friends decided Sophia was weird for liking bugs so much, they did something about it. They killed the grasshopper she brought to show them, and they began bullying her. It was a terrible blow, and had lasting repercussions. Sophia stopped sharing what she knew. She no longer brought bugs to school. Still, the kids made fun of her.
"Why doesn't she like regular things?
I don't want to be friends with a bug lover.
She's so strange."
She began to question her love of bugs. and took a break from them. Her mom knew that Sophia needed to know about others who loved bugs as much as she did. She wrote an email, hoping other entomologists would respond to her daughter. The first letter came from Morgan Jackson, and he asked if he might pass it along to others.
It wasn't long before Sophia heard from many others.
"I couldn’t believe how many people around the world loved bugs as much as I did. And how many of them were grown-up women!
There were scientists who wrote about the work they do in their labs. Others shared videos of themselves with bugs on their arms and sent pictures of themselves hunting bugs in the wild."
It was the inspiration she needed. Sophia shares her story in this captivating book. How wonderful is it to find something you love to do? She is very happy calling herself 'the bug girl'. Following her first person narrative, she includes a section called MORE BUG FACTS. In it, she lets readers know that her top four bugs are (it was really hard to choose): the grasshopper, the blue morpho butterfly, the praying mantis, and the fly. Oh, and she adds a little bit about ants!
The ink, watercolor and colored pencil artwork is as lovely as this endearring account. Brightly colored and energetic, it captures Sophia's generous spirit and her gentle love for all things 'buggy'.
Don't miss this video, please.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/girl-bullied-for-her-love-of-bugs-is-now-a-published-children-s-author-1.4815564
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