Bug City

(Hardback)

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Description

Follow a whimsical day in the life of a Bug City family, with imaginative illustrations of real insects, by American artist Dahlov Ipcar (1917-2017). This charming bug family (mama is a ladybug and papa is a daddy longlegs) share a day in Bug City, where they go shopping (for calico moths and velvet ants, of course) and visit the zoo (with rhinoceros beetles and ant lions). The bug family goes to work, cleans house, goes shopping, and enjoys a parade and the zoo. Children of all ages will be entranced by these bright colorful illustrations--a monarch butterfly riding a goldbug coach pulled by horseflies--and familiar end-of-day activities like dinner and bedtime where "only glowworms and the lightning bugs light up the darkness with their small lights." Ipcar's flamboyant, four-color illustrations make for an amusing and quirky book in which children can also learn to identify many different kinds of insects. Ipcar was a well-known artist of the WPA-era and also illustrated a number of other children's books. Ipcar's works are now in the permanent collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. She is also represented in the leading art museums of Maine, as well as in many corporate and private collections throughout the country.

Reviews

Dahlov Ipcars work invites us to face the challenge of explaining our own creative self. In doing so, we will develop our own unique way of looking at the beauty and excitement of simple everyday life.
Sara Torres Vega, PhD, education research assistant, Museum of Modern Art

Author Bio

DAHLOV IPCAR (1917-2017) was an American painter, illustrator, and artist known for colorful paintings featuring animals in farm settings or the wild. In 1945, she illustrated The Little Fisherman, her first children's book, a classic Golden Book written by noted children's author Margaret Wise Brown and still in print after 70 years. Since then, Ipcar went on to write and illustrate thirty children's books of her own. She also wrote four fantasy novels for a slightly older audience, as well as a volume of short stories for adults. Her art in general--described as wild colors and cheerful--is significant in the social realism movement. In 1972, Dahlov and her husband together received the Maine Governor's Award for "significant contributions to Maine in the broad field of the arts and humanities." She has also received three honorary degrees from The University of Maine, Colby, and Bates colleges. In 1998, The University of Minnesota honored Dahlov with The Kerlan Award for Children's literature. In 2012, The Farnsworth Museum gave Dahlov the Maine In America Award, an honor given to an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to Maine and its role in American Art. Ipcar's works are now in the permanent collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York and recent exhibitions have been displayed in Maine and across the US.