Simon & Schuster The Honeybee

A bee-autiful collaboration from Kirsten Hall and one of my all time favourite illustrators, Isabelle Arsenault. The artwork is perfectly executed and I love the pops of pantone honey yellow throughout. The story is told in buzzy rhythm and rhyme and is a delight to read aloud. A timely read but not in any way preachy- just a wonderful celebration of our friend, the humble honeybee.

This is a cute book with a nice rhythm and sweet illustrations. If I wasn't a beekeeper I would probably love it. But, I want bee information that I read to my grandchildren to be accurate. In this book, the 'nest' looks like a paper wasp nest, not a honey bee nest. And swarms are not about all of the bees coming to find the flowers.

My almost four year old twins both love this book. I initially downloaded it as an e-book, and I so enjoyed reading it to my kids that I ordered the hard copy version, which to my delight brought even more tactility and vibrancy. I love the story, the rhythm, the artwork, the colors, the texture of the pages and how cleverly all the elements come together. A beautiful marriage of talents from the author and illustrator. All in all, it's my favorite book to read to my kids, and they love it too!

My kiddos are book junkies and one of the things they have really enjoyed during Shelter In Place has been getting new books. I tried a few different book subscriptions but all of them fell a little short of the mark. One or two would be good or the quality would be les than desirable. Then I started paying attention to Amazon’s suggested add on purchases when buying some children’s books. I purchased this book as a result of one such suggestion and I’m super pleased that I did. My kids love nature books (I was buying another book about birds at the time) and this book struck a balance between great illustrations, a cute rhyming story and some substantive information. My youngest loves it for the sing-song writing, my middle one just wants to stare at the pictures and my oldest has been relating little tidbits to anyone that will listen 😂 Great purchase for little book worms!

What do I love about THE HONEYBEE, written by Kirsten Hall with illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault? EVERYTHING--starting with the cover, which introduces a wide-eyed, smiling honeybee flying above a meadow chock full of wildflowers.When I open the book my eyes land on the magnified black and yellow strips of the bee's belly, a gorgeous piece of art work that could hang in MOMA. Then, already stung by the visual bite of this pictures, my poetry-loving eyes land on the lyrical words. BZZZZZZ says the bee.The book takes us from summer through autumn through winter to spring, when once again an abundance of flowers pours out through the sprinkling of wonderful words. Wild. Free. ZOOOOOOOOOM. Shhhh. Do you hear it? Then POW here she comes again, larger than life, still smiling, still wide-eyed, and back on the job. She locates the nectar, twists and turns in the pollen, insuring the propagation of more and more flowers.Clearly and comprehensively, the book covers the life cycle of the honeybee, including the mysterious dance that draws sister bees to the nectar. This glorious book, full of art, poems and science, is the first of many, I hope, from this talented pair.