The Book of Ant Records: Amazing Facts and Feats

Dig into this book of ant world records to discover some of the coolest, creepiest and most surprising facts about ants.

There are 20 million billion ants on the planet, and we see them all the time. But did you know that ants have superpowers? Super strength and super speed are only the beginning. Ants might be small, but they set big records. They can live in scorching temperatures and work together to build giant cities. A queen ant can have millions of babies in her lifetime. And some ants self-explode to destroy their enemies.

But which ant has the worst sting? What are some of the weirdest things they eat? How does an ant find its way back home? In this book you’ll find answers to everything you’ve ever wondered about ants and their amazing abilities. Before long you’ll be ANT-thusiastic for more!

Key Selling Points

• This informative picture book introduces both background information and some of the most fascinating and surprising facts about ants.
• Each spread introduces a category and awards the “record holding” ant that exhibits the featured trait or behavior. Among them are ants that suck blood, count their steps and have been to space.
• Lively art, funny speech bubbles and humorous interactions among the illustrations add to the reading experience, making the facts even more memorable.
• The illustrator grew up around her grandfather, Harry Krogerus, who was an entomologist and famous insect collector.
• The author, who works as a science journalist, has a PhD in evolutionary biology, and she completed her thesis on the social evolution of ants. She worked as an ant researcher for about six years.
• The idea for the framework of this “book of records” came about after the author met with groups of children to find out what they most wanted to know. She discovered that many of the questions were framed in superlatives—which is the biggest, scariest, rarest or smartest ant?

Katja Bargum is a Finnish writer, science journalist and former ant researcher. She received her PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Helsinki and wrote her dissertation on the social life of ants. As a researcher, Katja counted tens of thousands of ants. She then set out on a career in media, working as a science writer, an editor in chief of a scientific journal and a media producer. Her first nonfiction book won the 2009 Finnish State Award for Public Information, and she has also published a popular science book about ants for adults. Katja lives in Helsinki.

Jenny Lucander is an illustrator and children’s book creator whose works have won and been nominated for many awards, including the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize, the Runeberg Junior Prize and the Elsa Beskow Plaque. In 2022 she was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Jenny studied children’s book illustration and creation, as well as storytelling, at the School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg. She lives in Helsinki.

B.J. Woodstein is a Swedish-to-English translator, writer and editor, as well as an honorary professor of literature and translation at the University of East Anglia. She enjoyed telling her daughters all the ant facts she learned while translating this book and now has a newfound respect for ants. B.J. lives in Norwich, England, with her wife and daughters.