Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #977901 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781570913631
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3–Engaging watercolors keep time with a simple, easy-to-read text describing the life cycle of a bumblebee queen, from her awakening from winter hibernation to her death in late autumn. Sayre includes "fact circles" containing extra data on these creatures, a couple of closing paragraphs on bumblebee/honeybee pollinating skills, and respectful human behavior toward bees. Gentle, informative, and appealing, this title is an effective antidote to the edgy world of "killer" bees.–Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. In the spring, a queen bee digs her way out of the ground and flies off to drink nectar and search for a home for her colony. She settles into an old mouse nest, makes a waxy cup for storing nectar, lays eggs, tends them, and hatches them. After going through the larval stage, the new bees become workers, drones, and queens. In the fall, the new queens mate with drones before burrowing underground for the winter. A dual text conveys the main facts in large-type words, carefully chosen for sound as well as meaning. In a smaller font, another paragraph on each page or double-page spread offers related information in greater detail. Precise ink drawings with watercolor washes illustrate the text with clarity, simplicity, and skill. An appended spread includes a circular illustration of the bee's life cycle as well as more facts about U.S. bees and pollination, suggested activities, tips on observing bees, and short lists of recommended books and Web sites. Informative and attractive. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
April Pulley Sayre
Author

April Pulley Sayre is the award-winning author of over 50 books for young readers, including If You Should Hear a Honey Guide (Houghton Mifflin), Army Ant Parade (Holt), and One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab (Candlewick). Sayre's books, renowned for their lyricism and accuracy, have been translated into several languages. Sayre has a warm, fuzzy place in her heart for bumblebees. She flies around the country speaking to thousands of schoolchildren each year and has been known to encourage children to chirp and buzz as they explore the sounds of words and the joy of writing.

As co-authors of Hummingbirds: the Sun Catchers, she and her husband, native plant expert Jeff Sayre, often speak at botanical gardens, and birding festivals about birds, butterflies, bees, and the plants they depend upon.

April lives in South Bend, Indiana.

Illustrator: Patricia J. Wynne

Patricia Wynne is a well-known scientific illustrator whose art has been included in many collections and exhibited around the country. Her detailed illustrations have appeared in 90 books, including The Body Book, Tropical Rain Forest, and Backyard. Patricia lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Refreshing and highly informative.
Simple but concise drawings and watercolor illustrations of a queen bee and her stages of life, duties, activities and choices. The illustrator is a well-known scientific artist and the quality of her work speaks for itself in this story. No wonder this book received the TCA, Teacher's Choice Award. Each page is a story with descriptive qualities and then there is a little bee that circles a dialogue bubble with factual information different but adding to the story to enhance clarity and answer questions the child might be asking hiim/herself. I learned so much from reading this book and was amazed at how much I retained because of the manner in which it was written, simple and direct. I might have rated this book a 5, but I felt as if someone ripped the last conclusionary page of the book out. It really needed one or two more sentences. I did enjoy the extra pages in the back of the book filled with bee websites, bee activities, good bee-havior and a list of other bee books.

HERE'S THE BUZZ

How pleasant to find a children's book about an insect without anthropomorphic illustrations. Patricia Wynne's illustrations are bright, sunny, and accurate, allowing young readers to have a close up view of bumblebees as they really look. Done in watercolor and ink, her drawings of the differences between queens, drones, and workers are especially fetching.

Author Sayre's text is spare with informational asides, such as the number of species of bumblebees, their stinging habits, how nectar becomes honey, etc. The author has chosen to relate the life span of one queen bee, tracing the bee from early spring when she is underground to emerging and building her colony, and finally the birth of new queens and drones.

Youngsters may well be surprised at what one small bee can accomplish, and develop a healthy admiration for nature's creatures.

- Gail Cooke