Horsefly and Honeybee
A Picture Book
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When Honeybee decides to take a nap in the same flower as Horsefly, trouble ensues! They don't want to share, and after quarrelling, run away in opposite directions. But it isn't long until they meet again… They have both been captured by hungry Bullfrog! If Horsely and Honeybee are to escape before dinnertime, they must find a way to work together.
With beautiful illustrations and simple text, this is a sweet story about sharing and friendship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Horsefly and Honeybee meet inauspiciously, when the petite yellow bee invades an orange daylily occupied by the larger fly. "They had a fight. It wasn't pretty. Horsefly lost a wing. Honeybee lost a wing, too." They march off in opposite directions, only to be captured by a bullfrog. (He catches insects with his fingers rather than his tongue, thus prolonging the suspense.) The rivals squat miserably on a lily pad while the frog collects more food, but soon discover that their survival depends upon cooperation. Cecil (Brontorina) creates striking oil-on-paper images; his cartoonish characters escape the leathery green lily pad, with its fuchsia and violet blooms, for crystalline blue skies and a shared home in an orange flower bud. He concludes with an epilogue from Luciano De Crescenzo: "We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another." While the fate of real-life insects dismembered in such a way would be decidedly less rosy, the charm with which the book's message is delivered should keep readers from dwelling on such unpleasantness. Ages 4 8.
