"Craig began to experience a shrinking feeling, as though he might be withering away or else that everything around him was growing rapidly. It made him quite dizzy, so dizzy that he closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he couldn't recognize where he was."

Although Craig didn't realize it yet, he and his cousin, Jill, had been reduced to minute size and taken prisoner by an ant colony in punishment for stepping on one of its members.

Down beneath the ground they were herded, down to the city under the back steps, the complex world of the ant colony. Here where the haughty ant Queen ruled with an iron hand, each of her subjects had a vital task to perform, and Craig and Jill were put to work. Home began to seem far away as Craig labored with the engineer ants to expand the city's earthen walls, while Jill scurried about in the nursery, tending ant babies under the watchful eye of the head nanny. But no sooner had they become involved in the daily routine of the colony when an army of red ants swept down, threatening the destruction of the city and its inhabitants, including Craig and Jill.

Exciting as any real-life experience, Evelyn Sibley Lampman's fantasy is based upon scientific research and explores in detail the fascinating organization of the ant world. Honore Valintcourt's linecut illustrations create a wonderfully small-scale background for Craig and Jill's unique adventure.

From the dust jacket