Every Bug Has A Story: Insect Portrayal in Children’s Books Across Singapore’s Libraries

Hello! I’m Gladys and I have recently completed my Final Year Project (FYP) on insect portrayals in children’s books in Singapore libraries. With recent research discoveries and reviews highlighting the alarming rate of global insect biodiversity decline, the portrayal of insects in media such as children’s books has become more crucial than ever to shape children’s perceptions of insects, raise awareness of its ecological importance, and encourage insect conservation.

Thus, my research had two main aims: evaluating the portrayal of insects in fictional books in Singapore’s libraries, and to compare insects’ portrayal in fiction books to non-fiction books. For my research, I mainly collected data in fiction books and compared my data to data collected by Yeong Sui Hui, who collated data in non-fiction books in 2023.

From left to right: The Really Evil Weevil, More Dung – A Beetle Tale, Worm and Butterfly Are Friends Always

The above photos are just a small glimpse of the fiction narratives across the 100 fiction books that I have read and analysed in Central Public Library and the Punggol Regional Library. During the data collection process, I had so much fun reading about insects going about their day, hanging out with their other insect or invertebrate buddies, or a weevil just hatching a really evil plan to teach other insects a lesson for not paying attention to him.

After chuckling to myself in the corner of the children’s library section, I proceeded to identify and evaluate certain aspects of the narrative and illustrations that can potentially impact children’s perception of insects across the 100 books that I have read:

1. Insects Featured In the Book and their Role

2. Extent of Anthropomorphism, Anatomy, Personality and Gender

3. Scientific Information of Insects in Children’s Books

4. Message Takeaway & Themes

From my research, I have narrowed down 3 interesting findings that I have discovered:

1. Is it really just about the bees and butterflies?

   

   Bar charts of the distribution of roles across insect orders in fiction books. Source: Gladys Kang (2026).

   

   Word cloud derived from titles in both fiction and non-fiction books. Source: Gladys Kang (2026).

   With the high representation of Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera in fiction books, bees and butterflies dominate their respective orders, leaving insects like hornets, wasps and moths underrepresented. Just by looking at the word cloud of title words in both fiction and non-fiction books, we can clearly see the bias towards bees and butterflies, often portrayed as main characters and mentioned in the title of fiction books, while non-fiction books often features a more diverse range of insects, using the word “bugs” the most to represent all insects featured in non-fiction books.

   
   

2. All butterflies are females and all beetles are males?

   
   

   

   Gender assignment percentage across different insect groups in fiction books. Source: Gladys Kang (2026).

   Another interesting observation was that aside from the high anthropomorphism of insects in fiction books, beetles (Coleoptera) had a higher tendency to be portrayed as a male, while butterflies (Lepidoptera) had a higher tendency to be portrayed as female. These patterns can suggest that gender assignment in fictional representations can possibly reflect human gender stereotypes rather than biological realities. Beetles are often associated with strength and hard work while butterflies are often linked to beauty and charisma. In addition, while Hymenoptera showed a more balanced ratio of male to female portrayals in this study, worker ants and bees are actually predominantly female in reality, with males making up a much smaller proportion of the colony.

   
   

3. Do Fiction Books Tell the Whole Insect Story?

   
   

   

   Bipartite plots of the different types of scientific information distributed across insect orders for fiction and non-fiction books. Source: Gladys Kang (2026).

   Lastly, when analysing the types of scientific information presented in both fiction and non-fiction books, it can be seen that fiction books show an uneven and selective distribution of scientific information depicted or mentioned, with habitat, diet and behaviour often being mentioned or depicted. In addition, certain scientific information in fiction books are dominated by certain insect orders. Across all the fiction books I have read, all the books that mentioned life cycle solely mentions Lepidoptera. Non-fiction books in contrast, show a more balanced distribution of scientific information, with most of the scientific information mentioning a variety of insect orders.

Moving Forward

These findings led me to reflect on how children may perceive insects after reading fiction and non-fiction books. The limited representation and high extent of anthropomorphism in fiction, with its main focus on storytelling rather than scientific facts, made me question whether these portrayals might influence children’s perceptions of insects. However, there is currently no formal research in Singapore examining how children’s perceptions of insects may change after reading fiction compared with non-fiction books, highlighting an area that could be explored in future research. Continued research in this area can provide an opportunity for Singapore libraries to obtain insights into how book curation can be improved to present a more balanced and accurate representation of insects.

If you were to ask me what is one thing I took away from this research experience, it will definitely be the importance of science communication, especially in societies like Singapore. With most children in Singapore growing up in highly urbanised areas, many children may have limited exposure to nature, which makes books their first encounter with insects and to learn more about them. Ultimately, what these stories teach us about insects matters. The insects we choose to represent — and how we represent them — can influence whether future generations see insects with fear, or with curiosity.

I will like to thank Prof. Eleanor Slade and Dr. Ong Xin Rui for this really fun research opportunity and their guidance throughout my FYP journey, constantly sharing with me their extensive knowledge in this field and providing feedback on areas that can be improved. I definitely have a greater appreciation for insects and I hope that underrepresented insect groups (e.g. moths, dung beetles, wasps) will get the same recognition and attention as what bees and butterflies are currently receiving, and for society to recognise the importance of each insect and the role it plays in our ecosystems.