Roberto: The Insect Architect is what you expect from a book about a termite who wants to be an architect. There are puns about eating your wood and not building with it. There are bug-name puns of real-life architects and more. It is simple enough, but Nina Laden has created a long story that mostly is amusing (it is mostly a Love or Not book, with a few people in the Like category). Landen’s illustrations are what you see from the cover, only a few can be downright spooky (After all, they are termites, and they have teeth to eat wood).
The idea is being yourself even when others tell you that you should not, or cannot, do it. Of course, we the adult reader knows that our wood-playing and not eating friend will have it all work out in the end, but that “What Will Happen?” is there for the younger reader and/or listener. The ages this picture book is aimed at is at least five and up, due to the length of the story and the busyness of the text and page. There is not a lot of “running around” action, but there is action of doing and wondering.
This is, like most of the books I read, is a Know Your Reader book. I do not see everyone enjoying it, but there is something for most readers. First published in 2000 (paper in 2016) this book has aged well as it has a timeless subject it explores.
And that’s The End
