Diary of a Fly Recounts the Daily Adventures of a Very Funny Fly

"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup."..."Shh! Don't tell!"...
"Why not?"..."Because then everyone will want one!"

Old jokes can sometimes make young children laugh hard. My five year old daughter was recently told the one above by her Daddy, and she thought it was hysterical. So of course when we happened across the book Diary of a Fly at our local library, she was primed to read and enjoy it, especially given the book's back cover. You see a little girl sitting in front of a bowl of tomato soup, and a mischievous looking fly (wearing a hair-bow) buzzing right through the bowl. The illustration is captioned with the day's journal entry from the fly: "July 1...Today I went swimming."

Cue the giggles!

I thought Diary of a Fly looked somewhat familiar. That's because it's penned and illustrated by the same team that brought the children's book world Diary of a Worm, which explores the exact same concept. In both cases, author Doreen Cronin and illustrator Harry Bliss give us words and pictures that capture the daily experiences and thoughts of a member of the "creepy-crawly" world. I remember getting the Worm book out a year or so ago, but I think my daughter was too young then to get much of the humor. Now she's into jokes and also into BUGS (note the capital letters) which makes her the perfect audience for the story. I can imagine many kids in the 5-10 year old range really enjoying this book.

I have to confess I'm not nearly as much as a bug-watcher as my little girl. The little guys tend to creep me out. These days I am learning more than I ever knew (and some things I've purposefully forgotten since junior high earth science) mostly to keep pace with the budding entemologist in the family. But even I loved Diary of a Fly. It's creepy, gross factor is amusing but mild (and consists of real facts about flies) and there's plenty of clever imagination on display in its pages.

What's most endearing, I think, is that "Fly" is a real, even lovable character. Cronin and Bliss manage to imagine what a fly's world might look like if a fly did the kinds of things that kids do: go to school, freak out the babysitter (a ladybug) and play with friends. Fly's best friends are Worm, from the aforementioned book, and Spider, who apparently also has his own diary-book (this is becoming its own genre!). Spider is apparently something of a rebel when it comes to bucking the pressures of the food chain.

"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!"..."What's it doing there?"..."The backstroke, I think!"

In fact, Fly has been invested with a good dose of personality and a sardonic wit. Bliss's comic book style of illustration suits the humor of the story well. Fly wears colorful hair bows and has a cheesy grin. As she describes her daily activities, you learn to appreciate the particular challenges, delights and worries in the life of a common fly. We get to know fly as she practices landing on "moving targets" (i.e. kids on swings), worries that all the other flies at school won't like regurgitated food (they do), and laments that her school picture didn't come out ("Mom says next time I better have all my eyes looking in the same direction"). Fly even gets put in time out at one point, for whining that she can't have her own room like Worm (though Mom points out that Worm doesn't have 327 brothers and sisters). The giggles turn to chortles or outright laughter in our house at that point.

Each page includes a date and a caption to go along with the pictures, as though Fly was recording her thoughts in a diary. The font looks like a type-writer font, which sort of begs the question of how a fly might type, but even that little detail adds to the overall fun effect. In between many more giggle and groan-worthy moments, Cronin manages to squeeze in some actual real facts about flies: how fast they fly, how many lenses their eyes have, how they can land upside down, etc. Many of these facts are related as Fly shares her yearning to be a superhero. Her longings add to the overall humorous effect while also building her into a much more "real" character than you might have suspected when the book begins, a character children can relate to.

Any time a book can evoke this many giggles and still teach a little something along the way, I'm impressed. If you've got a budding insect-enthusiast who also loves to giggle at a good joke, don't fly past this book.

~befus, 2008


Diary of a Fly
written by Doreen Cronin
illustrated by Harry Bliss
Joanna Cotler Books (HarperCollins), 2007
0060001569