ONE MEAN ANT WITH FLY AND FLEA AND MOTH

Yorinks and Ruzzier’s ant, fly, and flea—with the help of a moth—successfully escape Jim’s Flea Circus.

In this third and final installment of the life of One Mean Ant, the disgruntled ant is stuck performing circus acts with his friends, the fly and the flea (introduced in the second volume, One Mean Ant With Fly and Flea, 2020). Their “death-defying” acts, performed for audiences anemic in size, have them feeling like prisoners. But the ant devises an escape plan, one that incorporates the dimwitted moth who performs in another of Jim’s acts. In a nail-biting escape, they break free—and even keep an eye out for one another in the process: “They were friends, after all.” The author seamlessly and succinctly summarizes the plot of the first two books, so that any reader meeting these characters anew will not be confused. The characters’ dialogue is lively, the humor in their arguments stemming from their overriding personality traits—the choleric ant; the peacemaking but rather dense fly; the frustrated flea; and the addled moth—with the ant getting so frustrated that he repeatedly bangs his head on the floor. There is much humor in Ruzzier’s depictions of these googly-eyed characters, particularly in the ant’s furrowed brows and the moth’s constant state of bewilderment. Their determination to save one another in the end is made all the more poignant by the book’s lack of sentimentality. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A satisfying end to an entertaining series.