Product Description

The bad-tempered ladybird picks fights with every animal he meets, but soon learns the importance of friends and turns into a far nicer, happier bug. The beautifully illustrated pages of this entertaining book demonstrate the sizes of the different animals and the sun’s path across the sky as time passes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7646 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Amazon.co.uk Teacher Review
The Bad-Tempered Ladybird is another beautifully illustrated picture book by Eric Carle. At the start of the story a friendly ladybird is eating a breakfast of aphids on a leaf, when it is joined by a very bad-tempered ladybird who also wants to eat the aphids, but refuses to share.

The bad-tempered ladybird then proceeds to pick a fight with every animal he meets, never satisfied that they are big enough to fight. As the story progresses, the animals get bigger and bigger and this would be a good story to discuss the concept of size with a young child. The book is cleverly laid out and as the animals get bigger, so to do the pages. The illustrations in this book are of the usual high standard expected from Eric Carle. This book would also be excellent for consolidating a child's understanding of time, as at the top of each page it shows a clock face with the time that the bad-tempered ladybird meets each animal.

Finally, the bad-tempered ladybird arrives back where it started and is now prepared to share the aphids with the friendly ladybird. The story ends happily with the ladybirds helping the leaf by eating the aphids and both ladybirds going to sleep, as the fireflies come out to dance around the moon.

This book would be suitable for children aged 4-7 years old. --Amanda York

About the Author
Eric Carle is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator of books for very young children. He was born in New York, but spent his early life in Germany. He returned to the States in his early twenties and worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times. He went on to be the art director of an advertising agency before he began writing and illustrating children's books. Eric lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Barbara. The Carles opened The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts in 2002.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable for reader and child
My 6 year old son was offered this book last year, and we both still enjoy reading this fun and morally relevant story. As the scenario repeats itself over the pages with different animals, the child quickly picks it up and joins in to act the bad tempered ladybird. An happy end rounds it up perfectly. I recommand it for 4 year olds to young readers.

The Bad Tempered Ladybird is a deceptively educational book.
This delightful book is one of the most popular Eric Carle stories at the nursery where I teach. The children (aged from three to five) love the colourful pictures, and, of course, the ladybird is one creature that fascinates all children. We have been able to draw a great deal of work from this deceptively simple little book. We retell the story, thus developing language skills, add spots to a big ladybird to help counting skills, use collage to produce our own ladybirds (emulating Carle's quirky illustrative style) and use paint programs on the school computers to draw ladybirds (and develop ICT skills), not to mention all the scientific observation the story inspires! Most of all, though, we enjoy the book for what it is: an enjoyable story with attractive illustrations and a strong storyline. We base almost all of our work for a whole half term on Eric Carle stories and the only rival to the bad tempered ladybird's place in "Nursery Two"'s affections is 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'!

This book is great fun to read
...I love this book even though I'm a bit to old for it I still read it and it gives me a chuckle. The pictures and amazing words make the story complete for children