It’s the illustrations that really make this book.  They are bright and bold and silly and they add an extra layer to the rest of the story.  Before the reader even gets to the first page of the story, the title page and lead-in pages show us a rather nerdy kid (which I say with the utmost affection and respect) toting around a book about bugs, drawing bugs, stopping to examine a bug on the sidewalk as the school bus approaches.  The story opens with this kid on the bus telling the girl next to him that he’s going to have to buy lunch in the cafeteria for the first time because his mom didn’t have time to pack him a lunch, which disturbs the busybody Ginny greatly, and she insists our hero take notes so he won’t forget the seven crucial rules to survive such an experience.  He then goes on to tell us of his experience, in which he manages to break all seven rules, but still survives.  Throughout the telling of the tale, we see him still toting his bug book, and his retelling includes many analogies in which he relates those around him to the bugs he’s been reading about, which the illustrations capture with humor.