Ladybird, Ladybird

An Urgent Message. Will She Drop Everything and Fly Home?

This illustration has a greater sense of urgency than most others.  Perhaps it is because it is not a "little girl" picture; rather it seems to be part of an anthropomorphized insect community, thus bringing both parties pictured to the same level and more like neighbors.  The grasshopper actually looks very worried, pointing out the ladybug's house ablaze, which can be seen in the distance.  The ladybug, humanized and motherly with a flowered hat and shopping basket, looks like she just arrived from an otherwise normal day to hear the bad news. Although the sense of urgency and fright is conveyed in this image, the actual source of that concern, the burning house, is not portrayed visually.