How to Bee by Bren MacDibble

"Lessons start on the speakers. Urbs don't like that we farm kids are too busy to get educated, so lessons get played over the speakers while we work.  Today's lesson's just for us. It's about the history of the  bees.  Not us. The real ones they used to have thirty years ago before the famines."

First off here is another one of my predictions.  This book How to Bee just has to be shortlisted for our CBCA awards in 2017.  YES it is that good!

It is the future but Bren MacDibble leaves the reader to imagine just what has happened in our world. I adore this kind of intelligent writing where there are hints but the author does not feel the need to spell everything out.

Whatever has happened there are now no bees and so children live and work on farms and while they are still young and agile they climb the fruit trees and perform the pollination.  Away from the farms, city life is dangerous.  Society is completely stratified - there are the mega rich and the desperately poor.  The rich have retreated behind high walls with security guards.  The poor wander the streets hands outstretched hoping for money or food.  There is a strong undercurrent of violence.

Peony (what a perfect name for a child who longs to work as a bee) lives with her grandfather and little sister called Mags, short for Magnolia, on a fruit farm.  Her mother visits infrequently from the city where she works.  Peony longs for her mother to rejoin them on the farm so they can be a complete family but her mother has dreams of becoming rich and living in an idealized house with every comfort.

The story opens on a day when new bees will be selected.  Peony is too young but she is determined to be chosen.  She completes a trial run up the trees with her good friend Applejoy.  He is selected to be a bee but Peony slips and falls.

"I pull the end of the wand out from the branches and start along a branch. A stick jams in my legs and I trip and fall straight out of the tree. I land on my stomach on the dirt. Pomz (Pomegranate) sniggers and scrambles up her tree.  She's stuck the end of her wand into my legs!"

Peony's mother arrives to take her to work in the city in the home of a rich man who actually sells the fruit so carefully harvested and packed by the farm workers.  Peony is amazed to learn only three people live in this enormous house.  One is a spoilt but terrified young girl called Esmeralda. The two girls form an alliance.  Peony helps Ez overcome her fear of being outside and Ez helps Peony escape back to the farm.

I have listed How to Bee for Middle readers in Years 4 and 5 but I do need to give a warning.  There are some very violent scenes in this book when Peony is kidnapped by her mother and her mother's abusive boyfriend.  Sensitive readers may find these scenes distressing.

There are a set of teacher notes on the publisher web site.  Read this thoughtful review in Reading Time.

We have over thirty non fiction books in our school library about bees.  It seems to have become a bit of an obsession of mine.  You might like to read these reviews of The Book of Bees and Bee.

I would follow this book with Chance of Safety and older readers should look for the series Hidden Children which begins with Among and the Hidden.

Are you there Buddha? by Pip Harry

Bee has a lot to navigate. Her mum left the family some years ago to live in an Ashram in India. Kath, the new partner of Bee's dad, is kind and well meaning but Bee resents her role as 'substitute mum'. Bee does not want to wear the same clothes as other girls and she does not want her period to start or her body to change. Bee is a strong swimmer and she is working hard to join the National team. In spite of her prayers to Buddha her period does begin and she feels quite unwell for several days each month. Not to mention the other hassles associated with this for girls and women.

Bee has a best friend. His name is Leon. Bee wants to be his friend not his 'girl friend' but rejecting Leon's advances seem to be putting their sweet friendship in jeopardy.

For the first time Bee is now also noticing how adults behave towards their children. Her rival on the swim team is Laura Dark. Bee calls her the Piranha. Laura seems ruthless in her plan to win but then Bee sees some awful physical abuse by Laura's mum when Laura loses her swimming race. Bee is not sure what to do but it does give her a new perspective on Laura.

So as you can see there is a lot of angst in this book. I did enjoy the verse novel style and the strong, realistic voice of Bee. I also enjoyed the small fragments of Buddhist wisdom. But, I found the references to global warming and climate change slightly unnecessary and 'preachy' and I found Bee's experiences with her period quite confronting.

The main character, Bridget Ballentine who is known as Bee, is 12 years old and in Year Seven in High School. As a rule of thumb I often judge that the readership of a book should match the age of the protagonist.I would suggest this book is for mature readers aged 11 or 12+. Readers in this age group will relate to Bee and they are sure to sympathise with her worries and also cheer over her triumphs.  Over the summer of this story, Bee makes discoveries about herself and she tries out new relationships. I do know younger girls in Primary grades begin their periods too but I think the detailed information about this experience that you will find in Are you there Buddha? is more appropriate for a High School student and I think the cover reflects this too. The scene where her 'period' things fall out of her bag on the bus and into the hands of some older boys is just horrible and I could hardly read the scene where she has an accident and blood shows on her clothes as she walks along the school corridor. These scenes could potentially frighten younger girls who have not reached puberty. 

Pip Harry says "Bee has her foot on the border between being a kid and a teenager - an in between age I've wanted to capture in print for many years. The title references the wonderful Judy Blume classic, Are you there God? It's me Margaret. As much as I adore this seminal novel, I wanted to write a book about puberty that didn't assume all girls were desperate to grow up, fit a bra ad get their period. That certainly wasn't my experience and I imagine it isn't for many other kids out there."

You can read an interview with Pip Harry by Joy Lawn on her blog Paperbark Words. Are you there Buddha? was published today - 30th June, 2021. Thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance reader copy.  I now have a plan to revisit Are you there God? It's me Margaret which was a very controversial book when it was published. Read more about this here.

I loved Pip Harry's previous book The Little Wave.

A Bear's guide to Beekeeping by Pip Cornell illustrated by Alex G Griffiths

This book is filled with facts about bees and honey (mostly on the end papers). The main pages of the book are so funny as the author tries to teach a bear how to become a beekeeper. This is a perfect book for your youngest readers and it's a fun guide book for bears too or one huge bear in this case. We all know bears love honey. This guide book covers all the things a bear (and human) needs to know about bees - finding bees; building a hive; setting up a hive; the role of the queen bee; and how to use all that honey. AND you are sure to adore the twist on the final page too. 

Image Source: Alex G Griffiths

Blurb: Are you a bear considering keeping your very own bees? Can't get enough of delicious honey? Then this is the book for you! With invaluable tips such as how to make a tiny crown for your queen bee, you can become a master beekeeper in no time! Learn how to care for your new buzzy friends in easy-to-follow steps - but don't forget to absolutely never hug the bees. A spoof beekeeping manual for bears from debut author Pip Cornell and rising star Alex G Griffiths.

Readers will enjoy studying the illustrations throughout, a humorous must for any beekeeping family, and of course for every library shelf. Books for Keeps

Here are a set of teachers notes from Andersen Press for A Bear's guide to Beekeeping. It is a measure of the importance of bees in our world that there are SO many books for children about bees. This one A bear's guide to Beekeeping has such an inviting cover and every page has tiny details which will delight your young reading companion. The paperback edition of this book will be published in 2023. I recommend you add this to your book shopping list.  Here is my Pinterest collection.   I have previously talked about these:

Bee

The Book of Bees

If you are looking to add bee books to your library take a look at this post from Children's Books Daily - Megan is crazy and bees! And here is another post. 

Just One Bee by Margrete Lamond and Anthony Bertini illustrated by Christopher Nielsen

Just One Bee provides readers with opportunities to explore the topic of bees and their importance in our lives. The message is clear without being heavy handed. The way the queen bee has a tiny crown and the way she is contained in a cage will allow readers to infer her role and importance. The text of this story can be read in different ways by younger children and older students. It could be a story about two bees (and the queen) who restore the fields of flowers or it could be read as a story about humanity, climate change deniers, affirmative action, and the power of an individual to make change happen. There are also the themes of optimism and pessimism, hope and despair. One-Bee, the character, shows vision and resilience.

This is a book of true quality. The language is poetic, the page turns perfectly paced, and the illustrations are haunting and worthy of close study. The drama of turning the page to the field of vibrant flowers provides a visual shock while at the same time it is quietly affecting. The story and the telling are spare but below this is a theme of great depth.  The varied textures used as page backgrounds give this book an almost tactile feel. The illustrations have a hand-made quality.  The end papers have a retro feel. 

The paperback edition of this book will be released in mid October - here is the ISBN 9780648899655.

Just one Bee was published in 2021 but because it was entered for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year I haven't been able to talk about it until now. Book Week and the announcement of the CBCA Award winners for 2022 happened last month. As a CBCA judge I had to wait to share these books until the judging was completed.

Just one Bee is a 2022 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Honour Book.

Here in Australia, by now, most children in Primary schools are sure to have heard Just one Bee read aloud in a library or classroom but I know people from other places in the world read my blog so I do hope you can find Just one Bee in your local library, school or book store.

Here are the judges comments: 

The language here is poetic and balanced, and the illustrations use a limited palette and stark design to create an arid effect in this flower-less dystopia. There is a strong sense of place with the environment itself developed as a key character. On the surface, this is the story of three bees who question their own power and place in creating a more sustainable future. But these characters are rich representations of climate deniers and activists in the real world and the book helps readers to consider their own role in climate change and the importance of resilience and working together to make a positive impact. The shifts in tone, from bleak and barren to vibrant fields of flowers, are effective and create a sense of hope and optimism.

You can see books and art by Christopher Nielsen here. Read more about one of our newest Australian publishers - Dirt Lane Press. You can find teachers notes for Just One Bee on their site. 

I would pair this book with another dystopian picture book from Australia:

The Duck and the Darklings

Of course you will also want to read other books about bees - and there are hundreds to choose from and here are some other companion books:

Links to blog posts: How to Bee; Where the river runs Gold; The Thing.  For older students in Grade 6 I also highly recommend you try to find Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker (2009). There are so many terrific books you can read about bees. Here is my Pinterest.

My two favourite non fiction bee titles are:

One Bee too Many by Andrés Pi Andreu illustrated by Kim Amate

I love the little touches of humor in this story which I am sure any adult sharing this book with a young child will really enjoy such as this:

"One day, the bees met in the hive to discuss why they were always so cramped. They didn't have enough space to play sudoku, Parcheesi and or even checkers."

On this page the bees are reading their newspaper - the Honey Times. And on the page where the bees are talking about how to find this terrible extra bee the law book has the title - Bee Laws by Bee Good. You might also spot a Rubics cube, security cameras, and a machine called a pinocchiotronic - yes it's a lie detector.

The bees are in a housing crisis. They employ three architects - naturally things in the hive are based on a hexagon. The experts conclude there is one bee too many and immediately accusations fly around the room - this is such a disturbing scene:

• a foreign bee
• an immigrant bee
• a dirty bee
• a robber eating OUR honey
• it might carry germs
• it wants to take my job

How can the members of the hive find this extra bee. Should they assign a number to each bee - no. The lawyer suggests everyone needs a passport and birth certificate; and the linguist suggests listening to every bee as a way to detect a foreign accent.

Finally the Queen Bee steps in with her words of wisdom and the obvious solution. 

There are fabulous words in this book - incredulously; dramatic pause; hysteria; requirements; worrisome; and chilling conclusion. 

Adults will quickly recognize the allegory with parallels to immigration and racism issues of the present day and perhaps grasp the lesson of the queen bee. If only we could find such human wisdom. Friends Journal

Featuring surreal and elaborate illustrations reminiscent of Catalan modernism, readers are sure to find new surprising details in every read. Originally published in Spanish, it has won prestigious awards such as the White Ravens List, Golden Medal of the Campoy-Ada Award, and USA National Children Literature Award. from Dymocks bookseller page

I would like to find the context for this quote from the back cover of the book: “The picture book comes across inconspicuously, but it is the most beautiful and cleverest philosophical book that has been on the book market for a long time” ―Hans Christian Andersen Committee - I am not sure if the author or illustrator were perhaps nominated for the HCAA Award.

Another reviewer quoted on the back cover uses the words - whimsy, delight, moving and captivating.

Listen to a sample of an audio reading. Kim Amate comes from Spain and Andrés Pi Andreu is originally from Cuba but now lives in the US.

Pair this book with:

Scary Bird

It is not related to this book but in February I will also be reading and talking another bee book by Australian author Megan Daley illustrated by Max Hamilton.

CBCA announce the 2018 short list

I was out and about when the short list was announced today and I cheered, in a public place, because How to Bee made it!  I am a huge fan of this book.

This year 444 books were submitted by publishers for our Children's Book Council of Australia Awards.  Over the past few months I have focused on the Younger Readers Category. Today the six titles in each of the five categories were announced.  Here are the Younger Readers books:

How To Bee
There are excellent teachers notes for this moving dystopian book but first off head to your library shelves Dewey 595.79 and pull out all of your books about bees. Bren's book has also been short listed for the NSW Premiers Literary Awards - The Patricia Wrightson Prize.

The Elephant
Go out now and buy a purple backpack and practice singing Side by side.  Peter's book has also been short listed for the NSW Premiers Literary Awards - The Patricia Wrightson Prize.

Henrietta and The Perfect Night
Head off into the library shelves and gather all four books in this series. Martine has two books on the Younger Readers short list. I imagine she will be jumping for joy tonight!

Marsh and Me
Here are some teaching notes and a video interview with Martin Murray.

The Shop At Hooper’s Bend
Emily Rodda returns to the short list. She has written over 90 books and many have been short listed. In 1985 her book Something Special won a CBCA Award. Both books look at connections we can make through objects.

The Grand, Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler
start collecting "My Little Pony" toys.  You could easily turn some scenes from this book into Readers Theatre and your class will enjoy hearing and using lots of new invented words.

If you click the colour links above they will take you to my reviews of five of these titles.  I am so happy to see three of my predictions made the cut. How to Bee, The Elephant and The shop at Hooper's Bend. 

I am also very pleased to see Henrietta and the Perfect Night because it is good to have a title we can share with our younger students.  I think The Grand, Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler would be an excellent one to read aloud to a class of Grade 4 or 5 students.  I am off now to pick up Marsh and Me so watch this space.

CBCA Short list companion book ideas

PLCC AH PD = Primary Libraries: Creative Collaboration After Hours Professional Development

Exploring the CBCA shortlist - discuss the shortlisted books from various categories and provide some information about how we will be approaching a specific book with our students.  Will we focus on engagement, visual literacy, text analysis?

Tonight I was pleased to participate in a professional development session for Teacher-Librarians focusing on ideas for using the CBCA Book of the Year short listed titles.

As a 2021-23 judge I am not able to comment on any of the six Picture Book or six New Illustrator titles in detail until after book week so the focus of this post will be on other books you could share with a group in your library to extend your discussion of each short listed book.

When you think about activities to extend children's understanding and appreciation of a book you are sharing, in my view, it is very important to design activities which link back to the book and this link should be made explicit to your students.  I don't see any real purpose in colouring pages or find-a-word sheets except as busy work.  If time permits it is also terrific if you can read a short listed book to your students more than once.  (As a judge I read each of the notables and short listed books over ten times each!),

Some things to explore: Talk about the title, the choice of font, end papers, use of white space (picture books), the placement of illustrations on the page, the blurb, the colour palette, the implied audience, the title page and half title page, and can we explore other books by this author or illustrator? I'm sure you can add to this list. For example - Have you thought about the book shape? Why is this important? 

Questions to ask before reading:

What do you think might happen in this story? 

What makes you think this? 

Does this look like a book you would borrow or want to read? Explain?

Possible ideas for questions to ask after reading: 

What was your favourite part of the book? 

Who was your favourite character? 

What was the most interesting thing you learned from the book?

Does anything in this book seem familiar to you?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

Would you have ended the book differently?

Can you think of any other books like this one?

I suggest one way to explore the short listed picture books could be to look at companion titles but please note I have not limited these to Australian books because we are so lucky in Australia - speaking English we have access to the best books published in UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

The CBCA winning picture book in 1982 was Sunshine by Jan Ormerod. 

I love the link to 2022 where we once again have a wordless book to explore - The Boy and the Elephant by Freya Blackwood.

Books to share after reading The Boy and the Elephant. You could focus on other wordless books such as these:

Here are links to my posts: Stormy, Dandelion's Dream, Aquarium, The Midnight Fair. You are sure to have other wordless books in your library. Here is my extensive Pinterest. And here is a link to the IBBY Silent book project. 

Or you could read books about community action and the action of the individual to save trees or preserve the natural environment:

Here are links to my post: The Curious Garden

Blue Flower by Sonya Hartnett illustrated by Gabriel Evans

Companion reads which explore the themes of individuality, confidence, shyness, self esteem, fitting in and acceptance of self:

Here are links to my previous posts: Maxine; Found You; The Blue Songbird.

Stellaphant by James Folley has so many levels of meaning to explore. Notice the sheep janitor; the white male gatekeeper and managers with their identical ties and hostile reaction to Stella's dream and find the pot plant and watch it grow as time moves on and Stella keeps hold of her dream. You could explore books about girl power too. Take a look at the A Mighty Girl web pages. 

Link to my posts Mighty Min; Beautiful; Animals in space.

As judges we felt The Inheritance by Armin Greder is a book more suited to a High School context. 

I suggest exploring other books by Armin Greder and also planning your discussion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Please note Joseph's Yard is a very old book (1969) and so it is long out of print but it does have the most amazing illustrations. Here is my post about This thing called life?

Just One Bee is another book that rewards very close study. There are so many tiny details in the illustrations and this might be the first time your students have encountered a picture book with a dystopian landscape. 

For this book I have suggested some picture books and a couple of middle grade novels.

Links to blog posts: How to Bee; Where the river runs Gold; Bee; The Thing.  For older students in Grade 6 I also highly recommend you try to find Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker (2009). There are so many terrific books you can read about bees. Here is my Pinterest. You could also look at The Duck and the Darklings by Glenda Millard illustrated by Stephen Michael King. 

Iceberg is a book that you could easily compare with other books about Antarctica comparing illustration styles and the depiction of this icy environment.

Here are a few books I had in my former library which I would share alongside Iceberg:

I hope you have explored the CBCA short list page. There are links to teachers notes and book reviews and most importantly our judging critique for each book - this would be fabulous to share with older students after your class has studied each book and perhaps formed their own judgements.

More possible questions from What We Do all Day to use that ensure you keep referring to the book under discussion. Of course you would never use all of these - just pick the ones that will work the the text you are exploring and of course the questions which will elicit the best discussion from your group of learners.

• What do you think the author wanted us to take away from this book?
• Describe your favourite part of the book.
• Was there anything in the book that surprised you?
• If you could be a character in the book for one day, who would you chose to be? Why?
• If this book was turned into a movie, which actors would like to see play each character?
• If one of the characters could come to your house for dinner, who would you like to have visit?
• If you had to pick one colour to describe the book, what colour would you pick? Why?
• If you had to describe this book in one word, what word would you choose?
• How did the setting of the story impact the characters?
• Were you satisfied with the ending of the story? Why?
• Were there any new words that you learned from reading the book?
• If you could ask the author one question, what would you ask?
• What questions do you have after reading the book?
• Do you have a friend who you think would like this book? Who is it? Why?

Where the river runs gold by Sita Brahmachari

Shifa - the one who heals ...

There are scenes near the beginning of this book that I found so horrifying I just had to stop reading and take a breath. In this world of the future, society is completely stratified. Citizens are divided into Paragons, Freedoms and Outlanders. The rich, called Paragons, live almost obscenely opulent lives while the poor live in fear of the authorities in Kairos City.  There are optical eye checking points all over the city. Someone is always watching you.

Shifa has decided to sell her hair so she can leave some money for her father when she, and her brother Themba, leave to work in long hot polytunnels at the pollination farm. The siblings will have no contact with Nabil for the next five years. Shifa goes to a shop called Agora Hairtakers. She has to remove all her clothing and take a shower. Her clothes are taken away and steam cleaned. When she emerges from the shower her daisy dress is returned to her and it is now sparkling clean. Shifa sits in a seat and the hairtaker:

"opened her sharp metal shears. Shifa held her breath and was unable to stop the flow of tears as Nita made a clean sheer cut at the nape of her neck. She caught the length of hair in a pouch-like contraption attached to the chair."

Shifa is paid four hundred and sixty groits. But later she sees hair just like hers for sale for 1,000 groits. "With the groits she had in her pocket she wouldn't even be able to buy a quarter of her own hair."

So much happens in this story and working at the Freedom Farm is every bit as horrible as I anticipated. When the children arrive their palms are tattooed with a unique sunflower, their finger nails are treated (but Shifa bites her nails so this procedure is wretched) and the children are taken to have their eyes changed. The machine is called an Eyequaliser.

"Shifa felt the spherical orb inside the Eyequaliser pincer her lids open, as a jelly like substance shot into her eyes. ... Sifa glanced down at the tattoo on her hand. How she could pick out every coded seed dot in the centre of the sunflower. She peered into the distance, but the survivor tree had grown fuzzy, shimmering like a mirage on the horizon."

The children's eyes are changed because they need to be able to see very find details when they work pollinating many different flowers. This procedure is especially terrible for Themba and while Shifa wants to help, she finds she can no longer protect her precious brother from the horrors that continue to unfold.

Where the River runs gold will be published in July 2019. I highly recommend this book for senior primary and junior high school students. I do hope this book reaches a wide audience. You can read more plot details on the publisher web site. On her web site Sita talks about the inspiration for her story. She other books by Sita on the Love Reading 4 kids site.

I would follow this book with How to Bee which also explores the idea of our future world without bees.  It would be interesting to compare the idea of children as pollinators and to consider which plants are considered important. In How to Bee it is fruit trees and in Where the river runs gold the children pollinate flowers for the rich people to enjoy. The idea of exploiting children for this unnecessary luxury adds to the power of this dystopian story.

The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble

In her earlier award winning book How to Bee the premise was a dystopian world without bees. The Dog Runner continues this same genre imagining another dystopian future this one where ALL grass crops in the world are killed by an invasive fungus.

Take a moment to think about grasses:
Wheat
Rice
Corn
Oats
Barley
Rye
Sorghum
Millet

Now think about the consequences of this. No food for grazing animals means no meat. No wheat means no bread and other products from flour such as pasta. No rice means this crisis has international consequences I can hardly imagine.

In the city there is a constant threat of violence. Bren MacDibble takes a close view by focusing on one small family living in an Australian city. Infrastructure is breaking down. Government promises of food are just empty words. Looting and extortion are rife. Ella, her older brother Emery and their dad are living in their apartment but they don't feel safe. Ella's mum, Jackie, has not returned. She has been gone for 8 months supposedly restoring essential services but now all the electricity has failed. Ella thinks mum will return any day but she doesn't. Then dad leaves to find Jackie and he does not return. Emery knows it is time to take action. His mother (not Jackie) and grandparents live in a remote outback region. The journey will take many days and it will be dangerous but staying in this city is also dangerous. Emery knows there will be food if they can just reach his Grandmother who is growing mushrooms in hidden caves.

Living with Ella and Emery are three huge dogs. Early in the story, Emery adds two more to the team. The dogs are attached to a set of harnesses and the kids are able use a dogsled with wheels. The race is on. Not against time but against the violence of desperate city gangs who are moving further away from the city in search of food. One really sinister aspect of this is the use of electric bikes. In one harrowing scene Ella and Emery very narrowly escape a gang of thugs who arrive on these silent vehicles.

The journey is made more difficult by their lack of food for themselves, the need to keep feeding five huge dogs and their daily need for water on our dry continent. I won't explain why but I may never look at a tin of sardines in quite the same way after reading this book.

The strength of this writing comes from the way Bren MacDibble allows her readers to 'join the dots'. You will need to notice every tiny detail so you can work out these family relationships. Reaching the farm will mean there is hope for the future, for Ella and her family and perhaps for everyone but just how this will happen is sure to surprise you.

I would follow The Dog Runner with an old book that you might find in a school library - Chance of Safety. There are some violent scenes in The Dog Runner so I would recommend it for readers aged 11+. For teachers it might be a good exercise to compare some of the more violent scenes with an old book called Angie's Ankles by Gary Hurle.

You can read over twenty pages on the publisher web site. I was lucky to have an Advance Reader Copy and I actually read it twice which is something I very rarely do. The Dog Runner will be published in February, 2019. I am a huge fan of How to Bee (CBCA Book of the Year Younger Readers 2018) and so I am happy to see these two books have related cover designs by the same illustrator Joanna Hunt.

The Beehive by Megan Daley illustrated by Max Hamilton (Walker Nature Storybook series)

It is always thrilling to me when I see bees buzzing around flowering trees and small flowers. Megan Daley, the author of this new book, has loved bees nearly all her life beginning with times shared with her grandfather on his farm. Here is part of the dedication from her book:

"To Grandad for sparking and nurturing my love of bees, gardening and agriculture when I was very young."

The Beehive publisher blurb Walker Books: It's finally hive day! Willow has been waiting all year for groundskeeper Tom to split the school's native stingless beehive in two so she can take home her very own hive. Everything needs to be just right to help so that the bees forage and thrive in their new home. The dual text results in a charming story alongside an abundance of fascinating facts about Australia's native bees.

The Walker Books Nature Story series (formerly called Read and Wonder) are fabulous books to share with a young reader or in a library session. 

At the Sydney event to celebrate publication of The Beehive and on also this podcast (Words and Nerds) Megan explains that she loves to share nonfiction with her students and so about seven years ago she used the format of the Nature Story Book series to pen an innovation on this text style, writing her own book about our Native Australian bees. 

Native Australian bees are smaller than European bees and nearly all of them do not sting but they can nip you with their mandibles. The most special of our Australian Native bees are the Blue-Banded variety. I have listed further resources below. Read this review from the Australian Native Bee Association.

Prior to attending this event at our Sydney Bookshop - Gleebooks - I had read quite a bit about The Beehive via Megan Daley's own posts on Facebook and also via her group Your Kid's Next Read although I didn't know her story character Willow's name came from her younger daughter. Nor did I know she wrote 27 drafts of this text and that her beekeeper partner did not want the story beekeeper to look like an old man with grey hair. Here are the ideas Max Hamilton tried out before settling in the character of Tom who is based on a real person:

The really interesting part of the event today though, was hearing from the illustrator Max Hamilton. By happy coincidence this Sydney event was the first time Max Hamilton and Megan Daley had met in person. 

One lovely moment came when Megan talked about how she loved the AA Milne Winnie the Pooh books as a child - especially all the references to honey and bees. Then Max Hamilton showed that she had incorporated this classic story into her illustration without knowing this connection with the author Megan Daley!

We also saw her thumbnails for the book layout, her changing ideas for the cover, and the photos she used as models for her illustrations.

Everything in this story is beautiful, with a unique voice that shines on the page, dancing its way around each word and image as the story and facts come together to create a book that readers of all ages will enjoy and find engaging. It is also bright and colourful, exactly as a book about bees should be as it celebrates nature and the natural world, and what it can give us. I loved that it spoke about how important bees are whilst also being entertaining and accessible, ensuring that the layers of understanding are there for a wide range of readers. The Book Muse

Further reading:

Aussie Bee

Wheenbee Foundation

Which Native Bees live in your area? (I would love to see a Teddy Bear bee)

ABC Education Bee Heroes

World Bee Day - 20th May

100 Hives in 100 Schools

Kinderbookswitheverything blog - World Bee Day book ideas

This book also has a link to IBBY Australia. Max Hamilton kindly donated a beautiful piece of original art for our mini masterpiece auction - it was the little girl from this book! And we found out why she is holding Gnomes by Wil Huygen.

You could also look for these in your school library:

I should also mention there were a number of famous children's literature supporters and creators at this event including members of the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) committee; and authors and illustrators such as Nat A'Moore; Cheryl Orsini; Debra Tidball; Allison Tait; Jacqueline Harvey; Pip Harry; and Kristin Darell.  Thanks also to bookseller Rachel Robson. Her costume and enthusiasm made this event very special (and memorable). Best wishes for her move to the new shop just down the road - packing up all those books will be a mammoth task but I can't wait to see the newly renovated space (which will have a coffee shop).