Buzz, Buzz

MotherReader is thinking about the differences between fiction and nonfiction picture books and how some titles toe the line between the two categories. Being certain that a book is nonfiction, she says, is "certainly easy when your book is titled Bees and it's all facts about, you know, bees."

Her comment sent me scurrying to the shelves for Honeybees, written by Deborah Heiligman and illustrated by Carla Golembe. Sporting good information and lots of bright colors, it's a picture book that my son and I read often a few years back. Bees haunted Junior's preschool playground in the summer, and he was terrified of them—and found them endlessly compelling and worthy of many conversations. He still can watch those honeycomb things with live bees that you see in nature centers forever. I bet that when he spots Honeybees this afternoon, he'll want to read it again.

Honeybees is straight-up nonfiction; it's not one of those line-toers that MotherReader mentions. For more facts, don't miss the Nonfiction Monday roundup at Picture Book of the Day, which will be posted later this afternoon.

Honeybees
by Deborah Heiligman
National Geographic Society, 2002; 2007 (paperback edition)
32 pages
ISBN: 9781426301575

Comments

[Deborah Heiligman]

Thanks for buzzing about my book!
I wrote Honeybees because my younger son was terrified of bees--having been stung on his first day of preschool. Of course once I started researching I found out that he was stung by a wasp...not a honeybee. I loved writing about honeybees and I love talking about them, too--they are remarkable creatures. I was upset that the movie that recently came out got so much wrong--for one thing, worker bees are females! (Disclaimer: I didn't see it; just read about it, so I won't say more.) But I digress. The main reason for this post was to say thanks and tell you a little bit about the genesis of the book. DH

[Susan T.]

Deborah, thanks for stopping by! Every time I see your book I smile, thinking of how often we read it. My now 8-year-old son did read it for his reading homework the other night, and enjoyed it again.