Customer Reviews
The antihero 
2008-01-26
A lot of reviewers didn't think well of this book. My son loves it and so do I. Most people's complaints are about how the grouchy ladybug tries to pick fights, but I think they miss the big picture. Stories, like life, sometimes require an explanation to properly highlight the good for kids.
The grouchy ladybug is an antihero. He starts off to not wanting to share with another ladybug aphids on leaf, instead wanting to fight for them. The other ladybug stands up for itself in a polite, nice way, and the grouchy ladybug runs off to find someone bigger to fight, trying to prove himself better.
In the end, the grouchy ladybug ends up right where he started, by the leaf with the aphids and the kind ladybug. He ends up hungry, tired, and beat, all for nothing. The kind ladybug still shares the remaining aphids, and the grouchy ladybug thanks the kind one for sharing.
While the book theme may be more geared towards an older crowd than toddlers, the moral is not. The grouchy ladybug behavior is shown as being futile, gaining him nothing, and instead nearly costing him a meal he could have shared with the kind ladybug. The book highlights the virtues of sharing, kindness, and manners, while downplaying comically the futility of impatience, pride, tantrums, and poor manners.
not nice 
2007-09-10
I typically like Eric Carle books, but I wish I'd never heard of this one. This was on my 6 year old daughter's summer reading list for first grade. The ladybug goes around to each animal wanting to fight. Maybe we're naive but I want to keep the innocence going in our family as long as possible. It's just NOT NICE and it doesn't really seem to teach a good lesson. I'd skip this one and buy one of his other books.
terrible book from an otherwise wonderful illustrator 2007-08-12
why does eric carle have to make some of his characters so unappealing? what kid or parent would want to read a story about a total grouch who goes around the world being a pain in the neck? to me, this book and the very busy spider, who is an antisocial workaholic with no time for her neighbors, set really bad examples of behavior. why should i waste my time or my son's reading about characters i don't like? save your money for his better books--the chameleon, the polar bear, the kangaroo, the caterpillar, etc.
won't read this to my son 2007-07-02
Thank goodness this book is beautifully illustrated b/c I won't be reading the text to my son. The whole premise of the book is that this ladybug goes around asking people to "fight" and rather than turning the ladybug down (b/c fighting is wrong) they agree to and then the ladybug chickens out.
My husband and I are hardly what you would call conservative, but I just don't see why I want to invite the notion of fighting in to my sons life. Eric Carle has so many other wonderful books. I suggest just skipping this one.
The first read book! 
2007-06-21
I had to make an entry for this book as it was the first time my daughter read a book by herself. Well with the help of a couple words.
The story is simple. Two ladybugs see a leaf with aphids and decide to have them. The nice ladybug will share but the grouchy ladybug wants them all and offers to fight for them. He is stared down by the nice ladybug and the grouch declares the nice ladybug is not big enough and flies off to find somebody to fight.
He flys by several bugs, reptiles and animals which get larger and larger as he keeps declaring them not to be big enough. The final animal a whale ends up slapping some sense into the ladybug.
It's a fun little book and it's repetitive so it will help a new reader as they learn.
As to the claims of fighting? Well I am not sure it's a valid concern. You don't see any tension and the other creatures respond with "If you insist" to which the answer is "Oh, you're not big enough"
The telling of time comes to play and there are drawings of clocks on each page show the time for each hour. This allowed an introduction to telling time for my girl.
The artwork is good and I liked the concept of the text getting bigger as each new creature got bigger.
Overall a fun read for my girl.
Grouchy Ladybug 2008-07-21
My granddaughter "fell in love" with this book and she "had" to have a copy and where else but Amazon? Wonderful service every time I have done business with Amazon. Products top drawer. Thank you all so much.
Howard
Good Book 2008-06-02
This is one of my all time favorites by Eric Carle. We even made it into a puppet show! Fun
Hey, You, Wanna Fight? 2008-05-11
This book is going to have to quietly disappear. I can't get my 2 year old and 5 year old to stop saying the infamous phrase that is repeated throughout the book, "Hey, you, wanna fight?". I'm anticipating my 5 year old's teacher telling me any day now that he's saying this at school! Eric Carle is an all time great illustrator but clearly doesn't understand the effect of negative repetition on children.
I really dislike this book 2008-05-10
As another reviewer said, we are not incredibly conservative or anything. But I'd like to keep my three-year-old's innocence going as long as possible. I threw this book away after reading it just once, since the main character just picks fights with everyone. Why would I even want to introduce the notion of fighting to my son?? This is not a good children's book.
Not a nice book... 2008-04-18
I normally like Eric Carle books both for the story and the illustrations. This is not a nice book. Why would you want to read a story to your child where the main character tries to pick a fight with all the other characters--on every page!! I received this book at my baby shower because I had registered for several Eric Carle books (I hadn't actually read this one)--we returned it.
