The Grouchy Ladybug, also known as The Very Grouchy Ladybug, is a 1977 children's book written by Eric Carle, best known as the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and 10 Little Rubber Ducks, and originally published by Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

"[1] Early one morning, a grouchy ladybug challenges a friendly ladybug to a fight over which one of them should eat some aphids for breakfast but then decides that the other bug is not large enough to be worth fighting.

It then travels around the world and encounters a series of increasingly larger animals, such as a yellowjacket ("wasp" in the British edition), a stag beetle, a praying mantis, a sparrow, a lobster, a skunk, a boa constrictor, a hyena, a gorilla, a rhinoceros, and an elephant challenging each to a fight but then declining and deciding to go looking for a bigger animal.

Eventually, it encounters a whale, who at first does not answer, but then it slaps the ladybug with its tail and sends it flying back to where it started.

Also, the whale's tail takes up a page in itself and turning it is meant to represent the slapping motion.