With monsters straight out of a 1950s B-movie, the book puts a trio of small-town Iowa kids at the epicenter of a dangerous buggy outbreak while exploring sexual identity and friendship.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE By Andrew Smith Dutton. $18.99. Age 14 and up The end of the world comes with neither a bang nor a whimper but with a dark chuckle and the ominous click-click of giant insect ...