Rick Chrustowski

This book is so cool! I'm so grateful that I read this book because it did explain a natural phenomenon that I never knew about. This book talks about the reason why honeybees "dance." Essentially, the book explains that honey bees go out and find nectar in flowers and when they come back to the hive they do a figure 8 movement that communicates to the other bees which way and how far they need to go to find the flowers. The book also explains how they carry the pollen and how they collect nectar to make honey. The illustrations are very large and the book isn't long, so this could definitely be used for a read aloud. I think I would use this in a unit on animal adaptations or communication. This could also be used if you do a unit on insects. I think this book would be great for a k-2 clasroom.… (meer)

There's so much great nonfiction for young listeners coming out now that I sometimes feel like just diving in and swimming around in all the glorious books!

"When sunlight warms your honeybee wings, off you go on flower patrol!" begins this story of a bee. The bee discovers flowers, communicates with a dance, and sends the forager bees out to collect pollen.

The illustrations are bold, bright, and geometrical, a perfect fit for the honeybees' venture out into the sunshine and flowers and their hive. The cut paper collages give a childlike feel to the story and additional pastel pencil details add a note of realism to the design.

A page at the end explains in more detail how the honeybee's dance works and there is a brief author note for older readers.

The bold, simple text would make both a wonderful read-aloud and a suitable easy reader for kids starting out on their own. This is a perfect book for the youngest listeners - pair it with some dancing and a honeybee song or two for best results! It's a good book for gateway learning for older readers as well - get them interested in the idea of dancing as communication and extend it from there.

Verdict: Great for storytimes, great for a school library, great all over. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9780805099195; Published 2015 by Henry Holt; Purchased for the library… (meer)