Sitting on a stump, Pete the Badger is reading a cookbook.

His forest friends are gathered around him, tummys rumbling and smiles aplenty, at all the good food they can create with the plentiful fruit in the forest.

One thing is spoiling the reading… an annoying fly!

Pete is getting cross, and then his friends are too. What are they going to do?

Then, not one, but hundreds of flies arrive. They only thing for it, is to catch every fly – then all the bugs in the surrounding forest too!

But when they go to make all the delicious fruit recipes they have been reading about, there is no fruit anywhere. No blackberries, plums or sloe berries. Something is very wrong.

When a bluebottle calls from inside her jar that the animals need insects first before fruit can grow (or poo can be cleaned up), Pete realises their terrible mistake.

The cover of Bothered by Bugs grabbed my attention, as I LOVE Emily Gravett books!

Inside is a true treasure in both the gorgeous story and rhyme, and the pages full of lush animal art and antics. Both characters and readers can learn the true importance of insects – no matter how annoying they can be.

Front and back endpapers have fold outs, displaying many insects (found in the UK). In the middle of the book is an entire page of bugs in jars. How many do you know?

But wait! There’s more. The first and last pages of the book have six tasty fruit recipes to try.

Author / Illustrator – Emily Gravett

Picture Book

(2025, Too Hoots, Pan Macmillan UK, Forest Animals, Badger, Flies, Fruit, Pollination, Insects, Bugs, Environment, Balance, Recipes, Cooking)