Honeybee
The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner
Take to the sky with Apis, one honeybee, as she embarks on her journey through life!
An Orbis Pictus Honor Book
Selected for the Texas Bluebonnnet Master List
Finalist for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet!
Apis builds wax comb to store honey, and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage. She defends the hive from invaders. And finally, she begins her new life as an adventurer.
The confining walls of the hive fall away as Apis takes to the air, finally free, in a brilliant double-gatefold illustration where the clear blue sky is full of promise-- and the wings of dozens of honeybees, heading out in search of nectar to bring back to the hive.
Eric Rohmann's exquisitely detailed illustrations bring the great outdoors into your hands in this poetically written tribute to the hardworking honeybee. Award-winning author Candace Fleming describes the life cycle of the honeybee in accessible, beautiful language. Similar in form and concept to the Sibert and Orbis Pictus award book Giant Squid, Honeybee also features a stunning gatefold and an essay on the plight of honeybees.
Cook Prize Honor Book
A Kids' Book Choice Award Finalist
An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, NPR, Shelf Awareness, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and more!
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year!
A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book
A Booklist Editor's Choice
Named to the Texas Topaz Reading List
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Tongues lick./ Antennae touch." The brief but complex life of a Apis Mellifera a worker honeybee is explored with depth in this richly detailed picture book. Fleming uses lyrical language to describe just how jam-packed Apis's short life is her jobs include cleaning the nursery, feeding "grub-like larvae," tending the queen, building comb, food handling, and guarding the hive. "At last, on the twenty-fifth day of her life... she leaps from the nest and... FLIES!" Apis lives only 10 days more: "She has visited thirty-thousand flowers. She has collected enough nectar to make one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey." Though "Apis stills," Fleming renders her humble life a mesmerizing wonder. Rohmann's realistic oil-on-paper illustrations artfully capture close-up details such as the glisten of transparent wings and the fine hairs covering a bee's body. An ending schematic identifies bee body parts, while supplemental materials offer more facts and details about helping the insects. Ages 6 9.