STOP THE PRESSES!!!
Here I was, ready to feature a completely different book this week for Women’s History Month, when this book usurped its place. I feel it is fitting because worker bees are female, AND as the back matter states:
“One out of every three mouthfuls of food in the American diet is, in some way, a product of honeybee pollination—from fruits to nuts to vegetables.”
This is the nonfiction I wish I’d grown up with!! More than fascinating, the marriage of text and art in this book is masterful, creating an immersive experience second only to actually living inside a hive or watching a BBC documentary that takes you there.
Just when does a worker bee take her first flight? Inquiring minds will ponder that question page after page while she performs a series of sequential jobs within the hive and then, finally, flies! Look at this magnificent gate fold!
Text ©️Candace Fleming Illustration ©️Eric Rohmann
Text ©️Candace Fleming Illustration ©️Eric Rohmann
And then follow along as she searches for nectar, pollinates flowers, and returns her load of nectar to the hive, over and over again in her short life.
When I got to the page where Apis is nearing the end of her life, after she
“has flown back and forth between nest and blossoms, five hundred miles in all. She has visited thirty thousand flowers. She has collected enough nectar to make one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. Her work is done.”
—I choked up.
This book is a keeper. Sorry, it was waiting to be said.
I have been schooled by the Fleming-Rohmann team in creating empathy for an insect. I’ve also been schooled in the art of tension-building through page turns based on the question “Flying?” Masterful. I cannot use that word enough. And the illustrations? Bees so intimately presented that I feel part of the sisterhood of the hive. So moved that I want to send our dearly departed Apis off with a proper funeral (with flowers) and words of thanks, celebrating her self-less life as I dip my teaspoon into a jar of honey.
As Betsy Bird said, “If you buy only one bee book for the rest of your life, make it this one.” I agree.
Activities:
Watch a short National Geographic video about Honeybees (great for younger kids)
Watch a PBS Digital Studios video about honeybees, including how they make honey (great for older kids)
Hand craft your own bees
Read poems about bees, observe them outside (if possible, if not watch one of the videos listed above), and then write your own poems.
Title: Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
Author: Candace Fleming
Illustrator: Eric Rohmann
Publisher: Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, 2020
Ages: K-adult
Themes: honeybees, empathy for insects
For more perfect picture book recommendations, visit Susanna Hill’s website.
Jilanne Hoffmann 
“one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey” – goodness! How many bees’ lives does it take to make a jar then? I shall feel guilty the next time I waste any…
Yes, that was my thought, too. I just did the math. Roughly 576 bees gave their lives for one 8 oz (227 grams) jar of honey. I vow to scrape every little bit out of the bottom of the jar from now on.
I love this book and have ordered copies to give as gifts. I almost ran my review today, but am glad I held off. Will wait until spring. My sister-in-law has bees on their farm — I know she’d love it! Love that you did the math,I thought about it. We take are honey for granted.
I do think it’s a great gift book! Am so glad that you’ll be spreading the word a little later in the spring. I want this book to have legs!!
I learned about the making of this last year at a retreat and have been awaiting it. Fascinating! Candy Fleming is a rock star!
I agree!
I adore this book. I had an F&G, so I am so glad you posted the gatefold! It is truly is as amazing as I had been told. Eric is such an amazing illustrator.
I think it’s going to have lots of fans. It’s definitely going to become a permanent member of my collection. ❤
Wow! Gorgeous and important book. Thanks for featuring this beauty, Jilanne.
I hope you get a chance to read it. I expect to see it on “Best of” and many award lists for 2020.
Candace is such a non-fiction master, I cannot wait to read this one on a topic about which I am passionate.
Yes, she is! You’re going to love it!
I picked this up from the library yesterday as part of my stay-home-and-read marathon. I’ve always been fascinated by honey bees – so fasicinated, in fact, that I spent too much time close up as a youngster, and now I’m allergic. Glad to learn I can revisit these lovely ladies in the pages of a picture book. Great review & activities!
Very much looking froward to this one! Thanks for sharing!
It’s heading to my FOREVER shelf.
Thanks for the shout out, Patricia!