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: #2044 in Books
• Published on: 1982-09-30
• 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

Synopsis
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.

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

A lot of fun and a lesson
A great book, more worthwhile than many thanks to its amusingly negative protagonist (the ladybird) and universal lesson about the importance of sharing.

didn't think the message was good for young children
Bought this book for my pre-school group, the ladybird is not only bad tempered but wants to fight every creature he mets. I don't want to promote fighting or violence so this book has only been read twice.I was very disapointed because other eric carle book are Fab.

disappointed
I bought this book for my 6 year old niece after reading the reviews posted, but I was very disappointed.I showed it to my husband and my 23 year old daughter and they too felt that it was not suitable for my niece. I couldn't see what the moral of this story was as it seemed to promote a confrontational aspect of life, which I felt not right for a child of 6. I bought the tiniest mermaid and she loved it