The Natural Genius of Ants is a well illustrated and engaging coming of age novel aimed at middle grade readers written by Betty Culley. Released 10th May 2022 from Penguin Random House on their Children's imprint, it's 240 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
Despite the heavy nature of the subject matter (death of an infant, medical malpractice, family grief, depression, forgiveness, and friendship) this is a very well written and ultimately uplifting book written from a child's perspective and with age-appropriate content. It's a chapter book and written in an unadorned direct first person point of view in the voice of young Harvard, a precocious ten year old, son of a medical doctor whose loss of an infant patient has led to a professional and personal crisis of faith.
There's a lot of humor in the writing and from the protagonist, Harvard, and his younger brother Roger. They're often genuinely funny and the story has a lot of honesty and compassion. It's not a central theme of the book, but I liked that Harvard and Roger are multicultural, with their mom's family hailing from the Dominican Republic. Representation is important.
Four stars, this would make a good selection for public or school library acquisition and for home use. Recommended for ages 8-12.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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