Rosa the Little Ant peacefully lives with the rest of her colony in an ant hill until a herd of elephants causes them to flee their home. The Ant Village community seeks refuge in a large acacia tree high over the ground, where Rosa loves to feast on its enormous and nutritious leaves. The problem is that the elephants enjoy the acacia tree as well, as Rosa discovers when one of them disturbs the branch on which she happened to be resting. Fearing another attack that could send her loved ones fleeing elsewhere again, Rosa trains by jumping around on the branches of the acacia tree, and the next time an elephant arrives, she leads the colony in an assault of their own upon the pachyderm. The elephant flees, which leads Rosa and Ant Village to celebrate their success.

Despite its fictional elements and characterizations, Nix’s story about ants who protect their home is grounded in nature. In many ways, it is a good way to illustrate to children the general reaction red ants have when someone disturbs them, especially since the elephants who caused the problems for the ants did so without any obvious malice. In each instance, the elephants were either just moving through the area or looking for something to eat. As such, this story becomes a potential warning for readers to pay attention to their environment and watch out for red ants because they are small but can pack quite a punch when they work together against a perceived threat. It would make a short and cute story to read for young audiences, with beautiful illustrations and plenty of chances to have fun with the instances of onomatopoeia.

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