Bug Off!

This witty compendium, subtitled ""A Swarm of Insect Words,"" suggests that moths, mites and bees nest in unlikely places. Readers of Hepworth's Antics! already know the buzz: the author highlights key syllables in words like ""mammoth"" and ""license,"" then provides an illustration of each term. With one word and one image per page, Hepworth conveys lots of detail in her grainy colored-pencil drawings. For instance, a frowning and antennaed ""Beethoven"" holds a quill pen and sheet music in his fuzzy digits. To define ""beefy,"" a black-and-yellow fellow flexes his pecs. ""Signatures"" depicts tiny bewigged John Hancocks with the Declaration of Independence, and ""tick-tack-toe"" is a variation on the game. The ""roach"" pages pose the biggest challenge, and Hepworth strains to include them: ""encroach"" depicts plump tourist-cockroaches crowding a skinny bug in an elevator, while ""reproach"" presents a pest locked in the stocks. Yet even these tenuous attempts offer a useful vocabulary lesson. Hepworth's six-legged ""descendants"" and ""behemoths"" take the sting out of spelling bees, and her imaginative approach may well press readers to invent their own dynamite terminology. Ages 5-up. (May)