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.

One Little Seed by Elaine Greenstein

One Little Seed by Elaine Greenstein

Rating: 5 stars

This is a simple little book.  Simple words.  Simple pictures.  Simple message.  You can't go wrong with it; I think it should be the base for all of us mother-gardeners who are looking for a book or two to explain the process of gardening...

Here's the whole book (I'm sure you can imagine the beautiful illustration on the corresponding page):

One little seed

Our garden, day one.

Dropped in a hole
Watered and loved
Roots unfurl
Sprout uncurls
Stretch in rain
Weed and watch
Bud bursts out
Sun shines bright
Blooms blossom
One little seed is picked

That's it, and that's all.

Why do we garden?  At our house, there are a few reasons: To save a bit of money; to become a little closer to nature; to know the origin of our food; to differentiate between vegetables grown on a vine, in the ground, etc; to have something productive to do.

But the biggest reason: to teach patience.  Good things take TIME.  And often, a lot of it.

A few weeks ago we checked out a Franklin book where Franklin's class each gets a seed from their teacher.  Their homework: plant it, watch it grow, and identify what sort of plant it is.  When they can identify it, they are to bring it back to school and plant it in the school's garden.  Franklin's plant takes the longest, but finally (of course) he realizes what it is (I can't remember!) and brings it back, happy that his plant can join all of his friends' plants.  The teacher asks them what plants need, and they chime in the same answers as we did when we were kids: water, soil, sun.

And Franklin adds: "Time!"

I was so proud--SO PROUD!--of Lorelei when she told me that she also added "time" when her teacher asked her class what plants need to thrive.  It is just so true.  We all need time to grow...  Time to get over difficult times, time to get rid of that baby weight, time to watch your garden bloom, time to get past an un-fun phase with your kids, time to learn what loving your husband really, truly means, time to understand what it means to be happy.

So, we simply garden.  And we simplly learn life lessons from gardening (and lots of other stuff).  And we simply teach our kids...  One day at a time.

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: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Rating: 5 stars

Eric Carle is a master at combining beautiful illustrations with thoughtful stories and subtlety engaging children in life science subjects.


Our copy of The Tiny Seed is worn with years of reading, the binding taped in several spots and a bold, “JULIA” written in the first page to mark that we are never, ever getting rid of this book. My kids loved looking at the pictures and were mesmerized by the story as toddlers, pages were used with tracing paper to copy the trees and flowers, and now that they are great readers they still love picking it up and reading it to me.

A tiny seed, smaller than any of the others blows with the strong Autumn wind and flies by the sun, over icy mountains, the ocean, the desert and drops down to a perfect grassy spot only to narrowly avoid being eaten by a bird. It rests in the soil through the long winter nights, and grows to astounding heights in the spring. In the end, autumn again, it releases its tiny seeds in the wind.

I hope that you will get to experience this beautiful book, but you can’t have our copy, we’re still reading it.