Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
Drawing on the innate drama of the natural world, Fleming and Rohmann recreate the life cycle of a single honeybee from the moment she emerges from the egg to her death 35 days later. Before she even flies, there are so many specialized jobs within the hive—cleaning the nursery, nursing larvae, tending the queen, building the comb, handling the food, guarding the hive—before she finally flies off triumphantly on a double fold-out page that shows her over a field of flowers. Fleming perfectly paces the succession of in-hive jobs by concluding the description of each one with a child-friendly pattern: “It is time for her new job. Flying? [page turn] Not yet …” By the time she is ready to gather nectar, the honeybee has lived nearly three-quarters of her life. Rohmann’s larger-than-life watercolor illustrations give a great sense of bee’s perspective and of being right in the hive or atop a flower with them. The back matter includes a clear diagram of a bee, info on how to help honeybees, and more about different kinds of bees, their dances, and additional resources. ©2021 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Eric Rohmann
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 4-8
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Insects (Informational)
Life Cycle
Publishers:
Holiday House, Neal Porter Books
Publish Year: 2020
Pages: 44
ISBN: 9780823442850
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 595 Fleming