Please Please the Bees by Gerald Kelley

Please Please the Bees by Gerald Kelley
Albert Whitman and Company

Rating: I'd like to give it a 6!

I have 51 books checked out from our local library right now. We brought about half of them to the Oregon Coast last weekend--the hardback library picture books were augmented by paperbacks from our own children's library in an unsuccessful attempt to make my giant library bag a little lighter. Of all those books, this one is my favorite right now.

Meet Benedict. He's a simple bear. A creature of habit. Every morning, he wakes up at the same time. He stretches and yawns, opens his door, and collects the three jars of honey the bees deliver each day.

To fuel his day, he has toast with honey and tea with extra honey. Then he sets off practicing violin, baking honey cake, knitting, and running errands.

Until one day when there are no jars of honey on his doorstep. Instead, he sees dozens of bees, flying and steadying signs: "ON STRIKE!" No more honey. Benedict is beside himself. He doesn't know what to do, but he knows his days are impossible without his honey.

A bee buzzes up to him: "We need to talk!"

Benedict: "Talk? Humph! I let you all live in my yard. All I ask is for a few jars of honey. You should be grateful. Not go on strike!"

Bee: "A few jars? Buddy, we deliver three jars of honey to you every day. Every month! Every year! Do the math, Einstein!"

Benedict even learned how to harvest honey. 

At that moment, a lightbulb in Benedict's fuzzy bear head lights up. And he gets it. And as the bee explains the poor working conditions, high demands, the number of queen bees that have quit, and how many miles and miles they have to fly to find enough flowers to make their honey, Benedict understands the problem even more. At first, he's not sure what to do, although he knows--he agrees with the bee--that change is necessary. Then Benedict does some research, a little shopping, and a LOT of work.

The result? A spruced-up hive and a new plan of action where Benedict does a lot of the work himself. The bees drop their "ON STRIKE!" signs and get back to work.

The bigger result? A children's book that is up there with the great and clever classic Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type--both that book and this one apply a complex, usually-adult subject to a children's book in just the right way. Gerard Kelley created a book to put in the laps of children that inspires and teaches about the importance of taking care of the world's bees. But this book's illustrations go beyond Click, Clack, Moo...the illustrations of Please Please The Bees are sweet and gorgeous, clever and funny. They are downright perfect.

I only wish there was an author's note or resources on the back to show young readers what they can do to "please the bees!" But the Honeybee Conservancy has some ideas. Click HERE for them, right after you head to your local independent bookstore to buy this book.

Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi

Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel

Rating: 5 stars

This book is one, big, deliciously illustrated invitation for your kid to arm herself with curiosity, go outside, and search for some bugs.  As long as she doesn't get too close to a stinging type of bug, what's not to love about that?!

From first glance, I was in love with this book.  Wenzel's illustrations are bright and fun and he somehow gives the cover and pages a sense of movement with all these bugs. He balances perfectly the fine line between real bugs and cartoon-like character bugs.  Kids have a real sense of what the real bug looks like, but it's still cuter and more approachable than in real life.  His work completely shines here.

Some bugs click. Some bugs sing.

The story really doesn't have the rise and fall and resolution story that we hold up as The Way To Go. There's not much story at all--but that works in this concept book.  This book is simply one about a single subject: bugs (as if that's news at this point). "Some bugs sting. Some bugs bite. Some bugs stink."  The words are sparse--but we found ourselves lingering on each page to make sure our eyes saw all there was to see.

Until you get to the end, that is, and then there's a flurry of words:

Stinging, biting, stinking, fighting,
hopping, gliding, swimming, hiding,
building, making, hunting, taking,
bugs are oh-so-fascinating!
So kneel down close, look very hard,
and find some bugs in your backyard!

The final page is this, a vibrant field guide to all the bugs introduced in the book:

A great book for summer.  Pair it with a big magnifying glass and an hour or two, and you've got yourself a nice way to spend an afternoon!

Superworm by Julia Donaldson

Superworm by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Alex Scheffler

Rating: 5 stars

A few months ago I participated in the Two Writing Teacher's Slice of Life March Challenge; every day I wrote a short or long (yup, mine were on the longer side…) essay about a snapshot within my life.  I do this on a weekly basis, but in March I wrote every day.  Because I was successful in my daily practice, my name was put into a drawing for a bunch of prizes.  And I won this book!  Thanks again to Scholastic for donating so many copies of them.

(Originally I thought I had won 16 books.  For clutter's sake, it was better that 16 of us had won one copy of this book!)

Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler are no newcomers to children's book.  They've given us many, many books, including: The Gruffalo (book for me is pretty good, but the movie version probably still gives poor Kiefer nightmares) and A Gold Star for Zog and my favorite Room on the Broom.  Donaldson is a great author to remember when you're at the library and need a starting place.  She writes really great stuff, and illustrator Scheffler makes those books even more magically funny.

Superworm is no different from the rest of her books.  It is fantastic!  The starting premise is so silly that my kids' interest was piqued as soon as I opened the envelope it arrived in.  A superhero worm?!  We were doubting the concept in just the right way--with smiles on our faces and hands grabbing for the book.  This we had to see!

That is one strong worm!

It turns out that Superworm is a hometown hero; he courageously does the right thing with his body that can transform into lots of different things.  He rescues a baby toad by becoming a lasso when the toad attempts to cross a traffic-y street.  He rescues a bug that's fallen into a well by becoming a fishing line.  Bees are bored, therefore he becomes a jump rope.  People (well, I mean bugs) love him so much they chant:

Superworm is super-strong!
Superworm is super-long!
Watch him wiggle!  See him squirm!
Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!

Therefore, when the Wizard Lizard kidnaps him and makes him dig up precious treasures, threatening to feed Superworm to his side kick Crow, the town goes crazy.  They want to help this hero who has helped them so many times.  Wonderfully, the insects all come together while the lizard sleeps and they defeat him in a hometown, this-is-what-we-do sort of way.  (I'm thinking of the scene from "The Three Amigos"… "We must sew!"  Anyone…anyone?)  Spider spins a web around him, the bees make him extra sticky, and another bug eats his magical flower leaf, robbing him of his magic.  They fly him to the town dump and leave him there wrestling the rubbish.

When Superworm emerges from underground, the happy town erupts in cheers--their hero is back!

It's worth closing your eyes and imagining a less imaginative book--with a person as a hero, rescuing kids instead of toads and bugs.  Nope.  That's just soooo to-be-expected.  A modest, humble, unassuming worm as a superhero?  Now THAT is funny and cute!  This is another wonderful book from Donaldson and Scheffler!

I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd

I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd

Rating: 4 stars

Somehow, these pictures seem to jump out at me.  Usually that's a good thing, but with a book on bugs, I sorta want to grab a flyswatter and swat the mosquitoes away so they don't bite me.  I told this to Ben, and now he tries to hit the bugs as I turn the page.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should have kept that observation to myself...

This is a basic preschooler book, but a good one.  It's a great one to introduce the whole concept of what my Thai friends would call "same-same-different," or comparison.  On all the pages are bugs, but they are so unique!  So different!  So special!  What a wonderful little lesson for our kids and their budding uniqueness in their little preschool pools of should-we-conform-or-not-ness.  (Did that sentence make sense at all?  I'm keeping it...hoping you figure it out.)

"Yes, I love all bugs!  Hope and fly and crawl bugs."

One page is dedicated to flying and fluttering bugs, another to flying and buzzing bugs, and still another to flying and whiny-buzzing bugs.  (Not sure I get the difference between simply buzzing and whiny-buzzing, but I love that my kids might pause to listen hard--really hard!!--to the sounds that bugs make as they fly.)

A very cute book, worth checking out very soon.  Don't be afraid of the centipede on page six...I am pretty sure it won't crawl off the page and onto your arm...!

Bugs Galore! by Peter Stein, illustrated by Bob Staake

Bugs Galore! by  Peter Stein, illustrated by Bob Staake

Rating: 4.5 stars

Kiefer is our resident Bug Patrol.  We have a few patrols in our house--most notably, "Safety Patrol," which I am constantly calling out to make one of the big kids go to make sure the gate is latched so Kiefer doesn't go up and then (bump, bump, bump) down the stairs unaccompanied.

But Bug Patrol is serious business to Kiefer.  If he sees a stink bug--thankfully we're not yet inundated with them (yet?) this year--he will point to it and yell in his I-can't-talk-yet-but-I-can-yell-already voice: "EHHH!!!"  And he'll continue to yell that out in that piercing little voice of his until I get it.  We all think this is pretty funny, especially when we can't find the darn bug he's honed in on.

So, here are some bug books in honor of our little Bug Patrol officer.

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This book is almost as wonderful as Cars Galore; maybe once I've read it a hundred and three times I'll love it just as much.

There are kooky drawings, courtesy of the creative Bob Staake, and witty rhymes, courtesy of the funny Peter Stein.  Here's a little taste of what's between the covers:

Some bugs cruise / around in groups.
Some bugs fly in / loop-de-loops.
Some bugs land / smack-dab in soups.
Some bugs crawl / right under ... OOPS. 

Blah!  A stinkbug! / Plug-your-nose bug!
Funky, smelly, / wash-your-clothes bug!
Bugs and bugs and / bilions MORE bugs!
Googols, gaggles / bugs GALORE bugs!

Fun stuff!

Ugh! A Bug by Mary Bono

Ugh! A Bug by Mary Bono

Rating: 5 stars

I asked Lorelei what sort of party she wanted for her birthday; she replied, "A princess party!" uber-enthusiastically.

Because I'm mean like that, I said, "No."  Then I thought to myself, That was pretty mean.  Perhaps I could soften my response a bit?  I explained to her that I thought it was important to make the boys at the party welcome, and they might not be excited about a princess party.  And then, because I know how to get under skin, I used her favorite word in my next argument: "Besides, everyone has princess parties.  Let's have one that is unique."  Her eyes lit up, and she got excited.

We decided on a garden party.  Not just a fairies and tea party garden party, but a wear-boots-'cause-you're-gonna-get-messy garden party.  We bought all our vegetables and set out the pots they needed to be planted in and helped the little gardeners (aka guests) plant our own garden.  It was a lot of fun--I only wish that we had more to plant, because we had so many eager hands!

Lorelei's twin cousins at the "reading center" at her party.

Because I'm nerdy like that, we had "centers" when the kids arrived.  Both Lorelei and Ben dig centers at school, and the concept has been super useful for me for playdates or just managing a long rainy afternoon with my own kids.  We had a sidewalk chalk center, a painting rocks like ladybugs center, a bubble center, and...you guessed it!  A book center.

This book was one of the garden-themed books we included.  It is a fun book--a great rhyme--that asks kids what they do when they see a bug with a ton of questions.  For example: "If you spied a centipede slithering by,/ would you reach for a stick? Run away?  Start to cry?"  The book ends by encouraging children NOT to stick bug in a jar for they are always happier out in nature.  Thankfully Bono makes no mention of that horrible boys-always-do-it thing about burning bugs with a magnifying glass (shudder)!

The illustrations are plain and simple and great.  It makes the kids giggle, and they can find some of the bugs mentioned in the book in our own yard and woods, which is always satisfying to me.  Entertaining and educational?  That's a good book in my mind.

Because I'm cheap like that, I bought our copy for 99 cents.  That's the only downside to this book: it's out of print.  But the one we found is in fantastic condition.  (Confession: It was actually supposed to be a gift, but we liked it so much we kept it!)  If you find a used copy, it might be worth grabbing it.  But you can always get it the way we first found it: our wonderful library.  And it's even cheaper than 99 cents.

Beth's Post: Inch By Inch by Leo Lionni

Inch By Inch by Leo Lionni

Rating: 4 stars

Out of the library of Leo Lionni books we own, my daughter chose Inch By Inch to read tonight. Always happy to read a book with beautiful illustrations and a happy ending, I cheerfully agreed. This Caldecott Honor Book was published in 1960 and still is just thrilling enough for a two or three year old inch worm loving child.


The inchworm is able to convince a hungry robin that he is useful in measuring all of the birds. He is able to measure long enough to measure the song of the nightingale inch by inch until he inches himself out of sight. It’s the perfect length and subject matter for “one more book” before bed.

Geez Louise! by Susan Middleton Elya

Geez Louise! by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Eric Brace
Rating: 4 stars

Had any stink bugs around your house in the past few months?  We had, like a bunch of people in the mid-Atlantic, hundreds of these little bugs clinging to our house for a few weeks in early Fall.  They were only a little stinky, but very gross. 

Why am I writing about stink bugs in this blog entry about this book?  Because Louise, of Geez Louise! is a stink bug!  I laughed as I read that for the first time, and kept chuckling throughout this book.  Another funny thing: explaining to Lorelei why the illustrator, Eric Brace, put wafting green squiggly lines behind Louise in every page.  To show the reader that Louise was stinky!  That alone made this book worth a checkout!

But the story is great, and a better reason to go find this non-stinky stinkbug book.  Basically, it's about a bully who gets put in her place (in a good sorta way). 

No one likes Louise the stinkbug because, well, she stinks, except her one faithful friend (Termite Tara).  Louise is a talented ice-skater; it's the one thing she really enjoys.  When there's an ice-skating contest, Louise is excited to finally show people that she's more than just a stinky bug.  But the mean bully Kiki the Cockroach (Boo! Hiss!) is competing, too.  Kiki intimidates everyone into not competing against her, but Louise is brave--and a little nervous, too, of course.  Louise skates first, and does really well.  Kiki skates second, and does okay until she skates past Louise, whose stinkiness affects Kiki's concentration!  Louise wins and Kiki never bullies her--or any other bug--again.

A stinkbug who takes on a bully and, with some talent (the hard-earned kind of ice-skating and the natural kind of flatulence-esque smell), gracefully wins in the end.  Hooray!

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

Rating: 4.5 stars

I think that Lois Ehlert is an acquired taste.  So maybe I just haven't read enough of her books?  I know that there are plenty out there--even in our small local library there are a dozen through which I've flipped a few times but, for whatever arbitrary reason, I've put back on the shelf.  Her images are somewhat Eric Carle-like, and we like him, so...what's the problem?

But this book is definitely a good, despite my lack of love for the author.  It is nonfiction; it tells the story of how caterpillars become butterflies through a nice poem and beautiful artwork.  I like that the focus is the butterflies themselves, and that the story doesn't end when they come out from the cocoon.  They fly out and "catch a whiff of something sweet. / They follow that fragrant scent of perfume, / until they find our garden in bloom."

The fact that we have several unruly butterfly bushes that are nearly trees helps make this book attractive to us.  On any given day and at any given time, we can walk out and watch four or five huge butterflies feasting on the flowers.  This book provides a little bit more information--just the right amount for a 3 year old or 4 year old--about what the butterflies are doing on our butterfly bush.  Lois Ehlert also includes that butterflies unroll their tongues to eat, so that's been fun to mimic both while we're watching our butterflies and while we're eating our own feasts.  Ben's attempts to "unroll" his tongue is pretty funny!

The other nice thing about the book: It doesn't end when the poem does.  There are two huge pages dedicated to butterfly identification, one of which included the Tiger Swallowtail that is the main feeder at our bush.  There's also one page for flower identification, with pretty pictures of all the different flowers that attract butterfly.  Sadly for us, deer are also attracted to many of them, but we still manage to squeeze in some so that our family can watch these flying beauties all summer long.

I love that there Ben and Lorelei are learning, through this book and others, about how species are unique within their own category.  That'll be the same when Lorelei starts preschool next year, so I'm glad that our butterflies and this book are teaching her that lesson a little sooner than she needs it.

I Love Bugs! by Philemen Sturges

I Love Bugs! by Philomen Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Rating: 4 stars

I'm not sure when to break it to Lorelei and Ben that I've actually tasted a few bugs, and not just when I was running really fast on a particularly gnatty day.  When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Thailand, I clearly remember the khun yaais or grandmothers of the village standing by the porch light grabbing the flying whatever-they-were and yanking their wings off of them, then throwing them into a bucket, where they'd soon become part of an omelet.

Yum!  Are you hungry now?

I think I have a year or two until I can start with my Peace Corps stories.  I'm going to save them in my back pocket until I need Lorelei and Ben's full attention, because there are some good ones tucked away for that day.

Until then, we have this book, which Ben LOVES.  He might cry when we return it to the library (but, luckily, our local library has a copy of it, so we can check it out almost anytime we want).  It's a simple little book with just a few rhyming stanzas that outline the simplest things that bugs do.  There are more words on the front and back jacket of the book where all the bugs are drawn, labeled, and described.  I've read this to Ben a few times a day for the past week, and he seems to love it even more each time.

Since our house is surrounded by woods, we see a lot of bugs--and not in our omelets.  So it's fun to see them where they should be (i.e., in the pages of a book) rather than where they shouldn't be (i.e., eyeing me up in the shower).  Philemon Sturges has a whole series of books like these--she seems to love all the things Ben loves, including trucks and planes and trains and tools--so we'll be checking those out soon.

In the meantime, we love bugs!  We love them outside more than inside...