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.

ERIC ROHMANN- Words of Wit and Wisdom

I've attended presentations in which Eric Rohmann entertains, informs,  and inspires kids. I've attended others in which he entertains, informs, and inspires educators. Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a full day workshop in which he directed his attention to the people who attempt to create picture books that entertain, inform, and inspire kids of all ages. 

The workshop was open to writers as well as illustrators. Unless you've made a serious effort at writing a picture book, that may seem strange. None of us who attended had the slightest doubt about the value of his messages, examples, and intent. Every word, even the punchlines and banter, found their way to the heart of the work on picture books, whether writing or illustrating. 

Picture books are not coffee table collections of fine art, although the art involved is often nothing short of brilliant. Recent posts about Wendell Minor's body of work should make that clear. in fact, the format known as "picture book" demands a mastery of not only art or story, with all the talent, technique, and finesse that both entail. Picture books demand a  seamless weaving of those in ways that defy description, but can be observed, practiced, and mastered. 

The bottom line is Eric Rohmann is just such a master. What's more, he is a master teacher, able to adjust his message and content to the appropriate audience, consistently delivered with humor and an approachable style. 
You may already be his biggest fan and not know it if you adore his books but never paid attention to the name. It happens all too often. But then, that's the paradox of being such a master- the work takes center stage, its power outshining any details like names and credits because the reader's attention is so fully absorbed by the story itself.

I won't commit the sin of listing in detail the specific advice or the grand themes he addressed. I will say that if you ever have half a chance to attend one of his presentations you should knock down walls to get there. You won't regret it. For sheer entertainment value alone, he can't be beat. The value, though, extended far beyond entertainment. Our day was filled with wit and wisdom, as the post title indicates. But in the case of Eric Rohmann, this is no cliche or trite label. His words, demonstrations, and examples were revealing in the moment, resonant upon reflection, and resilient. They apply to picture books of every type, aimed at every audience, on every topic. They transcend classics published seven decades ago through to the most cutting edge current titles. 

Now that's impressive. Thanks, Wisconsin SCBWI, and thank you, Eric Rohmann.

Co-RA, Michael Kress-Russick; Illustration Chairperson Deb Gross; Erik Rohmann

Unsung Women... and Titles

All across the blogosphere and print publications the celebration of Women’s History Month is well underway. Engaging posts feature important and worthy picture book titles about women who have made contributions to the course of history. Many of these are recent releases and attention allows these titles to find readers- and fans.

This week I’ll use some older titles to call attention to some unsung, often anonymous women and girls who helped to build this country. These heroines bore the many burdens of expansion and homesteading with strength and courage, but not without fear and suffering. Their names are unsung because the roles they played were so unremarkable, so typical, yet no less heroic.

Sketchy details about real women, sometimes family ancestors, are often the prototypes for historical fiction. Stories based on these family retellings and supported by extensive research generate wholly authentic tales that deserve to be told, offering admirable icons of everyday women.

Ann Turner’s DAKOTA DUGOUT uses only 126 words and Ronald Himler’s richly detailed line drawings to trace one such woman’s prairie years from the days of her soggy sodhouse, blizzard devastation, and searing crop destruction to her eventual life in a clean clapboard home in a thriving community. Each of Turner’s 126 words is precious, especially the final eight: “Sometimes the things we start with are best.”

Eve Bunting, a notable woman of history herself, brings us DANDELIONS, illustrated by Ronald Himler. In this case a young girl tells her version of the struggling, often miserable first year in a sod home on the prairie, desperately transplanting a stray dandelion on their roof. The only hint of time passing occurs on the final page with a view of sprawling dandelions.

These are terrific books to pair with the 2012 middle grade release, MAY B. by Caroline Starr Rose. At 225 pages, this, too, is a fairly easy read with few words per page. The story in verse relates not only preteen May B.’s life-or death challenges but also reveals that not all prairie wives withstood the stresses of soddy life.

In each case the simplicity of the words require the reader to engage deeply with ideas and the realities of a ruthless time in our history, weighing the costs and consequences, considering what their own choices might have been.

A humorous but equally revealing tale is APPLES TO OREGON: BEING THE (SLIGHTLY) TRUE NARRARIVE OF HOW A BRAVE PIONEER FATHER BROUGHT APPLES. PEACHES. PEARS. PLUMS. GRAPES, AND CHERRIES (AND CHILDREN) ACROSS THE PLAINS. Deborah Hopkinson’s text and Nancy Carpenter’s illustrations invite repeated readings , raise questions, and encourage further research. Young Delicious (yes, she was named for the apple) is no less courageous because of her age and stands proudly in the ranks of women who shaped America.

Among many other earlier titles, don’t miss THE PRAIRIE TRAIN, written by Antoine O’Flatharta, illustrated by Eric Rohmann. It’s a wild and rollicking view of the impact of railroads in the settlement of the west. Rail passage brought access to supplies, but it also provided the woman and child power needed to make homesteads into homes in that exhausting, demanding new world.

The comparative value of children, not to mention of boys versus girls, is depicted in TRAIN TO SOMEWHERE, also by Eve Bunting, illustrated (once again) by Ronald Himler. Based on true stories of children transported by train from east coast orphanages to stops along the route, they would line up at each station to be selected (or passed over) by locals as needed. Newspapers advertised their scheduled arrival and, quite naturally, able-bodied lads were the first to find homes. In fact, though, these often proved to be little more than unpaid slave markets.

One final reminder, here, of the series of picture books, illustrated by Wisconsin’s own Renee Graef, which introduces younger readers to Laura Ingalls Wilder. MY FIRST LITTLE HOUSE SERIES, including A LITTLE PRAIRIE HOUSE, reveals the humor and challenges of families moving to the outer edges of our land.



Speaking of word counts, I’ve far exceeded a reasonable number of words here, but the potential for titles, links, and tributes goes on and on. The collection sited above includes Caldecott illustrators, Newberry notables, and more starred reviews than you can shake a cornstalk at. So, just as we can search out the everyday heroic women of past and present, I urge you to read, share, and celebrate the books already on our library shelves.

***I hope you’ll also check the links to these authors and illustrators- notables one and all.