Busy Buzzers: Bees in Your Backyard

by Nancy Loewen, Brandon Reibeling (Illustrator)

Overview

Describes the physical characteristics, life cycle, and behavior of honeybees. Includes activity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666306125
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	08/01/2021
Series:	Backyard Bugs
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	24
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nancy Loewen writes fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. Recent awards include: 2012 Minnesota Book Awards finalist (The LAST Day of Kindergarten); 2011 Bank Street's Best Children's Books of the Year (Share a Scare: Writing Your Own Scary Story); 2011 Book of Note, Tri-State Young Adult Review Committee (Stubborn as a Mule and Other Silly Similes); and 2010 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers (Writer's Toolbox Series). She's also received awards from The American Library Association, the New York Public Library, the Independent Book Publishers Association, and the Society of School Librarians International. Nancy holds an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University, St. Paul. She lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two teenage children.

Table of Contents

A flower's friend — Hives and honey — The queen bee — Busy bees — Dancing bees — Summer sounds — Life cycle of a honeybee — Fun facts — Go on a honey hunt.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 3-Short paragraphs of large, bold print briefly describe several outstanding physical and behavioral characteristics of honeybees and moths. An insert in the shape of a magnifying glass offers additional facts-in small print-on most of the spreads. The simple texts are clearly written, for the most part, and most of the facts provided are logically organized. Exceptions, however, occur in Night Fliers. For instance, the sentence on the first page that reads, "Moths are like butterflies of the night" may confuse children who are as yet unfamiliar with either insect-the page comparing the two doesn't appear until the end of the book. A later section discussing some moths' feeding habits is oversimplified. The stylized, digitally prepared illustrations in these introductions have definite child appeal. Strong, clean lines define the basic shapes of the insects as well as the flowers upon which they depend, and all of the spreads are suffused with color-muted shades in the backgrounds and mostly primary colors in front. The appendixes focus on a particular aspect of the featured insect and include more miscellaneous facts plus a suggested activity. Joyce Milton's Honeybees (Grosset & Dunlap, 2003), aimed at about the same age level as Busy Buzzers, offers more information on anatomy, behavior, and life cycle and has more realistic illustrations. Linda Glaser's Brilliant Bees (Millbrook, 2003), which also covers the same material, provides a bit more information on hive building and honey making and contains realistic, close-up drawings of the bees.-Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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