The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs

by William Joyce

Book Overview

An old woman is ill and her garden is in peril. The doodlebugs want to help her. It has been said that on a moonlit night, one can climb to the highest branch of the highest tree and call to the Leaf Men for help. After all, the garden is a place of miracles where anything can happen.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060272376
• ISBN13: 9780060272371
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.7" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

An imaginative adventure, dreamy & sweet

While an older child might appreciate it somewhat better, my just-turned-4-yr-old loved it. The quality of the book itself is worth more than the price. The paintings and typesetting are beautiful. While the subject matter might be a little dramatic for a wee one, 4 and up will love it. Thank you, William Joyce.

Tiny of body, but brave of heart........

As a child, did you ever look for hidden treasures in your backyard? Well, this is a story about the magic of backyards and gardens. Two words describe this book--magical and mystical. My son loves this book because it combines his love of insects and superheroes. This is a wonderful story to read aloud to children and seems to really spark their imaginations. The illustrations are imaginative and unique. It is a favorite book at our house!

It works upon the mind as the great myths

Nevermind reading this to children: *I* read it. Here is a tale of mytheopic properties -- the Long-Lost Toy, the treasured rosebush grown sickly, the old woman, wound about, and bound to these treasured things of her youth, a precarious lifeline; and here too, those brave little bugs, the Doodle Guild, full of virtue and honour, who would give their very lives for a woman, and think nothing of it; and alas! too, the wicked Spider Queen, "enclosed in her own fat," who would devour her prey, and think not of it, and hath not mercy, nor kindness; and, when all is hopeless: the storm is stilled, the air is grown quiet, and lo! the Leaf Men of old, them whom Memory would forget.This tale is at once set upon the mind, and there it will stay for quite some time after the book is set down. I highly recomend it.

The Leaf Men

I am 45 yrs old and have been reading this and many other Willam Joyce titles to my children. The illustrations are facinating to children and adults alike. This is my favorite Willam Joyce book. I still read it and laugh and cry. Oh those doodle bugs are so brave. There is so much to ponder while reading this book, it will open your imagination to a whole new look at the garden, ageing, and being the smallest one in the class. It will make you feel.

A treasure of a book.

We got this book when my son's Grandma was undergoing chemotherapy, because the old woman in the book got better after her illness. He loves the book for a completely different reason, he loves the 'brave good bugs'. Because of this book, he now understands the concept of bravery at the young age of three. All & all, a truly wonderful book.