Title: The Fly
Author/Illustrator: Elise Gravel
Published By: Scholastic, 2014

There are three types of people in the world: those who love fiction, those who love non-fiction and those who love both (especially when they come together in a hilarious series of picture books).*

I’m the third type of person, if that wasn’t totally obvious. I love both fictional and non-fictional books, and I especially love the blending of fantastic and realistic elements.

When I first saw Elise Gravel’s books that featured some truly gross main characters, I was intrigued. These books are part of the ‘Disgusting Critters’ series, and they feature such memorable protagonists as:

• The Fly
• The Mosquito
• The Toad
• The Slug

And many others…including my least favourite of the bunch, head lice. (Fun side note: when my brother and I were in elementary school, about 200/500 kids got head lice one year. My mother was so grossed out by the concept of bugs in our hair that she told us that if we came home with lice, she would kill us. We didn’t know if she was serious or not, but suffice it to say, we didn’t chance it.)

Anyway, these books are fantastic. Despite having moments of super-grossness (like the part in The Fly where the fly is barfing digestive liquids onto its food to soften it), the books are super-informative. My girls absolutely loved this series when they were in senior kindergarten/first grade. They thought it was hilarious…and they actually learned a bunch of fun facts! For instance, in The Spider, they learned that spiders can live in almost any environment. In The Bat, they learned that bats are the only mammals that can fly. In The Rat, they learned that rats are garbage-eating disease spreaders.**

Okay, so all the facts aren’t fun. But they are factual!

The art is adorable (I mean, as adorable as disgusting critters can be), and the text is engaging and entertaining. If you’re hoping to learn some interesting (and super-gross) facts about your (least) favourite critter, this is the series for you!

* Okay, there are probably more types of people in the world than this. Like those who don’t like books at all. But do they really count? Like, really?

*sigh* okay, fine, they do.

** I know lots of rats are adorable and make great pets. But…they’re also objectively kinda creepy.