The Burying Beetle

By (author) Ann Kelley

It was after I ate King that everything started to go wrong in our entire family, as if someone had put an evil spell onto us, a hex – like a bad fairy godmother had said at my birth, when you are eleven you are going to be struck by a sorrow so big it will be like a lightning bolt. There will be grief like a sharp rock in your throat. Twelve-year-old Gussie was born with a rare, life-threatening heart disease, but it hasn’t hampered her curiosity. When she reads about the Burying Beetle, which has the unusual habit of burying dead birds, mice, and other small animals by digging away the earth beneath them, it becomes her mission to find one. As she searches the Cornish coast for the elusive insect, Gussie learns to be like the Burying Beetle, to bury things past and to live.

Reviews of The Burying Beetle

I am going to get this book no matter what. I will have this book – Stephen Perkin, aged 13 One of those rare books that delves into the unfathomable depths of your mind and makes you think. The sophisticated character of Gussie will enchant you and awe you with her wisdom. SARAH JACKSON, AGE 14 Acutely observed, tender, funny and very moving. MICHAEL FOREMAN Gussie fairly fizzles with vitality, radiating fun and enjoyment into everything that comes her way. Her life may be predestined to be short but not short on wonder, glee, the love of things as they really are… I hope Gussie's story sells a trillion, zillion copies. It deserves to. MICHAEL BAYLEY