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Author Notes
Megan McDonald was born February 28, 1959, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She grew up in the 1960s the youngest of five girls - which later became the inspiration of the Sister's Club. She attended Oberlin College and received a B.A. in English, then she went on to receive a Library Science degree at Pittsburgh University in 1986. Before becoming a full-time writer, McDonald had a variety of jobs working in libraries, bookstores, museums, and even as a park ranger.She was children's librarian, working at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Minneapolis Public Library and Adams Memorial Library in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She has received various awards for her storytelling including a Judy Blume Contemporary Fiction Award, a Children's Choice Book award, and a Keystone State Award among others. McDonald has also written many picture books for younger children and continues to write. Her most recent work was the "Julie Albright" series of books for the American public. She currently resides in Sebastopol, California with her husband and pets.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3Amanda loves bugs, a fact that no one else seems to appreciate. She examines them, collects them, protects them, and imitates their behavior. She even gets into trouble at home and at school because of them. Kids tease her, and one in particular, Victor, makes her life miserable. In one humorous exchange she calls him ``... a stinkbug on the leaf of life.'' Then she discovers Maggie, a classmate who has a passion of her ownreptiles. Factual tidbits slipped surrepetitiously into the appealing text add information to this spirited tale. It's refreshing to have nonsqueamish female characters who are willing to take on all adversaries in defense of their causes. Full-page and vignette illustrations rendered in soft-hued watercolors, colored pencils, and pastels complement and add humor to the story. They are energetic, engaging, and entomologically correct. Insects Are My Life is an almost-perfect specimen.Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NE (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pigtailed and bespectacled-and with a freckled, round face and turned-up nose-Amanda Frankenstein looks like a junior pedant. And perhaps she is. Crazy about insects, the strong-willed girl dumps her brother's fireflies out of the jar and informs him, "Bugs are people, too, you know." Amanda amasses a huge collection of bugs ("Dead ones, of course"), is proud of the number of mosquito bites on her leg (22) and utters the dramatic claim stated in the book's title. Incessantly talking about (and even acting like) various insects, she antagonizes her brother and classmates. The plot wears thin, although some of Amanda's antics are engaging and many of McDonald's (Is This a House for Hermit Crab?) lines are quite funny (when the aspiring entomologist puts her feet on the kitchen table because, she announces, butterflies have taste buds in their feet, her mother orders her to "please keep your taste buds on the floor"). Johnson's (The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down) animated watercolor, colored-pencil and pastel illustrations depend on exaggeration for their humor; even so, they are truer to life than the text in their depiction of ordinary feelings. Ages 4-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Amanda's passionate interest in insects, not shared by family and schoolmates, causes problems as other class members begin to ostracize her. All ends well, though, when she finds herself sitting next to Maggie -- who loves reptiles. McDonald's single-minded heroine evokes chuckles with her feisty independence, and Johnson's illustrations aptly convey the emotional ups and downs of all concerned. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A perky tale of a girl, Amanda Frankenstein (yes, Frankenstein) who persists in an unpopular fascination with bugs. This sweet-natured book is a happy marriage of pastel-toned, somewhat cartoony art with nicely paced, quietly humorous (though a bit longish) text. Amanda likes to observe live insects; she collects dead ones. She dreams of bugs; she draws bugs. She tries to confuse bats; she protects ants. She thoughtfully releases her brother's fireflies; she carefully steps around spider webs (this is a curious custom, since spiders are not technically insects and, in fact, eat bugs). Already a family pariah, Amanda further invites ostracism when she wears an ``Amanda Frankenstein: Friend of Bugs'' T-shirt on the first day of school. Even boys (McDonald is conscientiously breaking stereotypes here) are put off by her mania for insects. All's well that ends well. Happily, in school she finds a soul mate, an equally single-minded African-American girl, who, with similar dedication asserts that ``Reptiles are my life!'' Predictable, but gratifying. (Picture book. 4-7)
Booklist Review
Ages 4-7. Amanda Frankenstein adores insects. She collects them ("dead ones, of course"), observes them, reads about them, and even writes poems about them. But nobody seems to understand her fervor, not her mother or her brother, and certainly not the kids at school--that is, for except Maggie, whose green scuba goggles betray her dearest love: "Reptiles are my life!" Amanda's discovery of a new friend comes a mite too abruptly at the close of the story, but McDonald beautifully captures kids' wonderful ability for all-encompassing devotion and offers children reassurance that it's perfectly OK to be different. Johnson's pleasingly unsaccharine illustrations, rendered in a combination of watercolor, pencil, and pastel, catch sometimes sour Amanda at her willful, stubborn, preoccupied best. (Reviewed Mar. 1, 1995)0531068749Stephanie Zvirin