Author: Cathryn Carman Davis
Publisher: Sweet Dreams Factory
Rating: Worthy!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
Honeybee is a worker bee (which are exclusively female) who evidently doesn't like work! She decides to blow this honey stand and instead makes a bee-line to a nearby pond where she has some slightly scary adventures, and all of this is related in verse.
It seems like most of the creatures she encounters are not very friendly. The King Frog considers eating her, as does Sly Dragonfly, Slick Lizard and Huge Spider, although the frog later becomes a friend. Evidently they're not afraid of her sting. Worker bees, because they're female, can sting - they use a modified ovipositor. The male bees (the drones) have no stinger. How humiliating is that to male chauvinism?!
Honeybee eventually realizes that running away from home is not only a bad idea, it's a betrayal of her friends and colleagues, so she hurries back to the hive - just in time to help defend her home from the Horrid Hornets.
This story offers a really good opportunity to talk with young children about responsibility and danger, and about family versus strangers. It's beautifully illustrated in full color by the author herself, and I recommend it.
