A Pillbug Story by Allison Conway. Black Panel Press, 2024. 978990521218. 196pp.
Mille is a pill bug living in a bug town where she has lots of friends (that’s them on the cover): Alphie (ladybug), Holly (a spider), Ruby (an ant), and Ellie (a dragonfly). They all enjoy tea together, but each has their own particular way of life. Millies is the only vegetarian in her crowd, and everyone often forgets she doesn’t eat other bugs. Alphie is always eating aphids, which causes problems when she visits Ruby’s ant colony later in the book. They do find ways to live together, though it’s also clear that some bugs eat others without apology.
The book is charming, in part because of Millie’s anxieties, and in part because Conway has put so much thought into what a bug civilization would be like. Plus Conway’s art is very friendly. My favorite pages feature Millie visiting a doctor — she finds out she has a copper deficiency because she’s not eating her own stool. There’s an entertaining sequence at a beach, too, where the lifeguards warn everyone when predators are near.
