A story within a story about Psipsi, a young Dakota girl, whose father shares a traditional Uŋktomi story with her. Uŋktomi stories have been shared in Dakota families and communities for a very long time. This tradition continued into the childhood of my mother's generation. Depending upon location and community, variations of this Uŋktomi story have been told. This Uŋktomi story is a local version my mother and her siblings heard from their father, primarily when they were ill, perhaps to lend comfort in addition to impart lessons to a captive audience.

A 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Winner of the 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction "Raunchy, bizarre, smart and compelling." --Rolling Stone “Grasshopper Jungle is simultaneously creepy and hilarious. Reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s in “Slaughterhouse Five,” in the best sense.” --New York Times Book Review In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things. This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean. Funny, intense, complex, and brave, Grasshopper Jungle brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America in this groundbreaking coming-of-age stunner.

A Dakota story within a story about a young Dakota girl, Psipsi and her father telling her an Unktomi (trickster) tale

“They have sent me here because of what happened on the pylon.” When Clodagh Brown writes these words at the age of nineteen, she believes that she is leaving behind the traumatic events of her youth. But Clodagh soon learns that you can never entirely escape your past. In the aftermath of the incident on the pylon--one of the great electrified structures that dot the English countryside like so many gargantuan grasshoppers--Clodagh goes off to university, moves into a basement flat arranged by her unsympathetic family, and finds freedom trekking across London's rooftops with a gang of neighborhood misfits. As she begins a thrilling relationship with a fellow climber, however, both Clodagh and the reader are haunted by the memory of the pylon and of the terrible thing that happened there--and by the eerie sense that another tragedy is just a footfall away.

Describes the characteristics, behavior, diet, enemies, and life cycle of grasshoppers.

Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus “Gloriously inventive.”—New York Times “Any youngster who enjoys critters and nature will appreciate this book.”—5 STARS, Youth Services Book Review Kids ages 4-7 will get lost in the imaginative world of this wordless picture book! In this colorful and moving portrait told from the up-close perspectives of a young girl and a grasshopper, a garden comes alive with creatures, plants, and surprises of nature. Grasshopper encourages young readers to: Explore nature around them with curiosity and imagination Respect nature and the creatures who call it their home While investigating and admiring the insects in her garden, a young girl discovers how her actions impact the little creatures she finds, like a caterpillar inside a pea pod. When she places the caterpillar on an anthill, the ants swarm it! When she captures a grasshopper, she discovers one of its legs has fallen off. To keep it safe from the ants, she places it in a jar—only for another curious creature to come investigate. As the day progresses, the girl learns the profound effect she can have on the natural world around her. An Aldana Libros Book, Greystone Kids

Mahlee learns how differently Mommy did things as a child in her country, Laos, than Mahlee does in America. She loves doing everything with Mommy, but will she eat fried grasshoppers?