8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 0-395-48668-8 Originally published 1988 Genre Children's literature Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 4/5 Goodreads Publication date 1988 Pages 32 pp Preceded by The Z Was Zapped Illustrator Chris Van Allsburg Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Chris Van Allsburg books, Ant books, Children's literature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Two bad ants
Two Bad Ants is a 1988 children's book written and illustrated by American author Chris Van Allsburg.
Contents
Plot summary
The title characters, while journeying through a human home, decide to exploit a sugar bowl on their own rather than delivering the crystals to the colony's queen. They experience misadventures: they land in a cup of coffee, fall into a sink and are threatened by its garbage disposal unit, are ejected from a toaster, and are nearly electrocuted when they enter an electric outlet. Chastened, they rejoin a line of ants carrying sugar back to the colony.
Interpretations
In Philip Nel's analysis, a conflict between the book's plot and its illustrations leads to artistic tension. While the ants' return to the colony suggests "a victory for the bosses" and the narrative could be considered a "capitalist parable", the comparatively huge appliances in the kitchen, which terrify the ants, imply conspicuous consumption. Nel likens the book's resulting ambiguity to the works of Magritte.