Meet HONEYBEE: A Masterclass in Text and Images

Recently, public awareness of the plight of the honeybee, species apis mellifera, has gained public attention, concern, and efforts to intervene. Trends vary, from steady declines in populations for decades to some recent encouraging news about stabilizing colony collapse in some regions. 
That's the macro-view of HONEYBEES. 

NEAL PORTER BOOKS/Holiday House, 2020

The recent picture book by author Candace Fleming and illustrator Eric Rohmann presents a micro-view, an up-close-and-personal introduction to the life of an individual honeybee, called Apis for short. 
HONEYBEE: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera allows readers to absorb the remarkable complexity and necessity of the species while feeling a personal connection throughout every event in the short life of a single, particular honeybee.
This is much more than the theoretical biography of a single honeybee. 
It is also much more than a "how-to" book for wannabe honeybees. 
It could serve both purposes well. 

And yet...
any mundane comparison of this book to any other on the topic would miserably understate the combination of superb text and remarkable illustration, both of which reveal deep and accurate research with sensitive and lyrical artistry. 
The large trim size with impressively-scaled images set the stage for little Apis to meet us eye to eye. From that vantage she conveys her big role in the world and has readers cheering her on through each stage of her short but essential life. 
The familiar honeybee role-- gathering nectar and pollenating plants -- is a climax known from the start. Even so, the reader observes Apis developing from her infant-gray hours through to her eventual, glorious launch from the hive, cheering and caring for her at every dramatic page turn.
Apis begins her life cycle before the title page when she first cracks the surface of her wax cell and emerges into a massively interdependent social system. The question of how and why she so successfully progresses through each important life stage and hive-service is not addressed, but readers can sense that she is driven to do so, as is true of her thousands of sisters, bee after bee, life cycle after life cycle. That is a miracle of nature that we allow to decline and disappear at the risk of Earth's survival.
An equally powerful miracle is the way this pairing of storytelling and images left this reader feeling as if we just might be meeting an actual individual bee. 
I have always appreciated and respected bees, even though I stepped on one barefoot at age five. (Full confession-- I did not actually appreciate that particular bee.) 
I have followed many of the suggested actions to support honeybees that the author included in the excellent back matter. I have helped students learn much of this content and would have loved to use this book to do so- including the outstanding, labeled, double-page spread honeybee diagram at the conclusion. 
Despite all those positive attitudes about honeybees, I have NEVER before felt such an affectionate and protective reaction to the concept or the embodiment of honeybees.

Do not imagine that this was accomplished through an anthropomorphized portrayal. Apis does not adopt a first person voice. There is no contrivance needed, beyond the magic of gifted writing and illustration, to achieve this magic. Rather than making Apis seem human, readers are drawn so deeply into her world that we become one among the hive. 
At least that is how I felt.
Many readers are likely to have had a scary-or-painful encounter with a honeybee at one time or another. Some children may even have developed anxiety reactions about bees. Even so, I am convinced this astonishing picture book would convert them to become fans of honeybees. 

The creators of this book paired their brilliance on several prior projects, and I'm counting on them to do the same with future results. GIANT SQUID is a topic that is far less familiar to readers (or to science). It's a topic that might captivate some, but lacks the wide and deep fan base of honeybees. 
Until you read the book.
The award committees agreed: it was named Sibert Honor Book, NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book, and Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, among other recognitions.
I feel safe in predicting that HONEYBEE: The Busy Life of Apis Melliflera will meet or exceed those accolades. You can bet on it.


For another take on HONEYBEES check out my Goodreads notes about THE THING ABOUT BEES, A LOVE LETTER, written and illustrated by Chabazz Larkin.

And now let's hear it for WOMEN!

Whether March came in like a lion or a lamb where you live, it ushered in Women’s History Month here in the USA. Initiated as Women’s History Week back in 1981, this annual spotlight has a short track record considering that females have outnumbered males in this country for decades.

If you read my post at the start of February regarding Black History Month you can safely assume those same sentiments apply to this month’s designation.

*sigh of resignation*

In the interest of sharing picture books deserving of a place on any bookshelf any time of the year, let’s look at three titles featuring six amazing women- three history-makers and three authors, all women of distinction in their own right.

When Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming was released last spring I posted a detailed review for the Center for Children’s Literacy. Since its release it has garnered four starred reviews and the coveted SCBWI Golden Kite Award for non-fiction. It’s a comprehensive and authoritative biography that reads like the best of fiction and features extensive photographic and archival images.

Nikki Grimes offers another impressive portrait in Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman (illustrated by E. B. Lewis). Grimes, acclaimed for her poetry and fiction, infuses energy, emotion, and insight into the story of Bessie’s short but influential life. This book has the distinction of winning a Coretta Scott King Honor for the text and medal for the illustrations.

Rounding out this high-flying trio of picture book inspiration is Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride, by Pam Munoz Ryan, (illustrated by Brian Selznick). Ryan depicts an evening at the White House dinner at which Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt slip away to share a night flight over Washington. They return and cap off a memorable evening when Eleanor slips behind the wheel of her brand new car to drive Amelia around Washington. Ryan’s notes in the back indicate the blend of research and imagination underlying her award-winning title.


All three are set in a time before Women's History Month was conceivable, paving the way for those of us who came after. Together they depict an era in which barriers of race and gender were far beyond overt and offensive, to say the least. That familiar old saw, "Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it", hovers over all of us. These three titles offer a line-up of impressive women from that time, each of whom deserves our attention on any day or month of the calendar.


And don't overlook the authors who brought these stories to us, three very impressive women by any measure.


So who do you nominate as an author or history-maker of note?