Erik of het klein insectenboek

Eric in the Land of the Insects

1942 edition
Author	Godfried Bomans
Original title	Erik of het klein insectenboek (Erik or the small book of insects)
Translator	Regina Louise Kornblith
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch
Genre	Children's literature
Publication date	1941
Published in English	1994

Eric in the Land of the Insects, originally called Erik of het klein insectenboek (English: Erik or the small book of insects) in Dutch, is a 1941 Dutch children's novel by Godfried Bomans. It is widely seen as a children's classic and Bomans' magnum opus.

Erik Pinksterblom is a little nine-year-old boy who lies in bed at night, worried about a test about insects he has to perform at school tomorrow. Suddenly the paintings in his bed room come alive, including one depicting a meadow full of insects. Erik climbs into the painting where he meets several anthropomorphic insect characters.

First he meets a snobbish and rich family of wasps. They despise bees, because they work for people and use flies as string instruments. Erik has dinner with them, but is forced to leave the party early when he recites a poem about the "busy bee" and causes a house fly, whom he played as a musical instrument, to accidentally die. A bumblebee who claims to be a philosopher brings him to a hotel, made from a huge snail's house. Erik surprises everybody by reciting interesting facts about insects he read in a natural history book. While all the insects are amazed they are also scared often doing anything if it's not reported in the book. Erik can comfort them by telling them they just have to follow their natural instincts.

In one of the hotel rooms a maggot changes into a butterfly. Erik and him escape from the hotel. Later the butterfly meets a female butterfly with whom he falls in love. Erik helps him write a poem for her and eventually the couple gets married, leaving Erik alone. As Erik walks through the forest he gets into a fight with a spider. Seriously wounded Erik is dragged away by a burying beetle. The beetle considers himself to be the most important animal because all creatures live and die to serve as his dinner. His theory is destroyed when his entire family turns out to have been eaten by a mole. Erik then meets a rain worm who is stuck in a knot. The worm also thinks he is superior to all the others, because he is able to see without having any eyes. Despite this Erik still needs to find somebody who can untie him. As Erik searches for help he is adopted by an ant colony. He once again amazes them with his knowledge about insects, but gets homesick and asks them to bring him back. While the ants travel along with them to the edge of the painting they meet another ant army, whereupon a large battle takes place.