Masterpiece by Elise Broach

This is the first book I have read with a beetle as the main character, and I fell in love with it almost immediately. One think I liked about the story was that the beetles could talk to each other, but not directly to humans. They could understand humans, but not verbally communicate back. I find it a little hard to get into a book with animals that talk to humans in an everyday setting. I also liked Broach's writing style. It was very... familiar, and easy to read.

Marvin has some unusual talents. All the beetles know of his unique swimming ability, and praise him for it, but not even he knows of his artistic abilities. That is until he draws a picture with James' ink set. One discovery leads to another, and soon Marvin is doing many things he never would have dreamed about doing before. Some of these things were against 'the rules', but if he had not taken that field trip to the museum, he never would have found out about Duer, and the art thefts... What can one beetle and a human friend do, anyway?