Breakout at the Bug Lab
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Max is not like most pets. When most people see him, they do not talk baby talk. They do not try to pat him. Mostly they back away. Sometimes they scream. But Mom loves Max, and so do Leo and I.
Max, a giant cockroach, is on the loose in the bug lab! To make matters worse, there’s a party there today. Leo and his brother have to find Max before he makes people scream — or worse.
My 2001 debut into the world of easy readers reshapes true tales told to me by my dear friend Trish Hanson, a Vermont entomologist I wrote about for Seven Days newspaper. With its great illustrations by Joan Holub, the book has been a hit with beginning readers, and it also inspired me (briefly) to keep some pet cockroaches of my own. Grade level equivalent 2.4
They hiss like snakes and can hang upside down. They eat dog food, and sometimes toilet paper tubes. 
When Leo and his brother get two giant pet cockroaches, they don't know what they're in for. Before they know it, their two cockroaches become eight, and then ten.... In Big Surprise in the Bug Tank, two cockroach loving-brothers discover that when their pets reproduce, the baby bugs are even harder to give away than a litter of kittens. Grade level equivalent 2.9 |
Click on the picture to watch a giant hissing Madagascan cockroach in action
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