The Buzz on Bees Why Are They Disappearing?

by Shelley Rotner, Anne Woodhull

Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate. We use honeybees to pollinate nearly all of our domestic fruits, nuts, vegetables, cotton, and grains. The book looks at possible explanations for bees' disappearance, what scientists are doing to address the problem, and also what young readers can do. Bibliography and fascinating bee facts included.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction, Childrens, Nature, Environment

Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

When I was five, I refused to go to kindergarten. I declared it was for babies. I already knew how to read, but what really bothered me the most was that the kids mixed up the paintbrushes and colors at the easel so there was never true blue, red, yellow or green. Every time my teacher turned her back, I left the room and headed to the first grade class diagonally across the hall. Luckily, I had a friend there who happily shared her desk with me until the teacher noticed and sent me back to kindergarten. After many successful escapes, a trip to the principal and some testing, I was officially moved to that first grade class with beautiful autumn leaves painted on the door.

Reviews

[Sarahi]

Picture book #1 The Buzz on Bees

1. Twin Text: These Bees Count! by Alison Formento, @2012

2. The reason I chose this twin text is because it is about some school children going on a field trip to a “bee farm” and learning all about what bees do and how they help the environment. Since in elementary schools, many students take at least one field trip, I believe they will be able to relate a little bit to the children in the story. This book enhances the nonfiction text because it gives children the opportunity to see what types of things they may encounter on a “bee farm”, whereas in the nonfiction text, they don’t really go through too much of what you see at the farms. The nonfiction mostly talks about the disappearance and importance of bees.

3. The text structure of the non-fiction book is a problem and solution structure. The fiction text begins with a story about how a farmer noticed many bees have begun to disappear, and the author then goes into asking why this is a problem. Throughout the story, there are various explanations given and it mentions that scientists are still searching for more answers and solutions to how to stop this problem. This text also uses a little bit of the “Question and Answer” strategy when asking the reader what they think caused the bees to disappear, and come up with their own conclusion as they read the rest of the nonfiction text.
A strategy application for the twin texts is I would probably have the students help me create a web of how bees are important to our world. In the middle I would have the word “bees” then some branches from that main one could be “pollination” and “economy”. We could create another web with the main idea being “Why bee’s are disappearing” and placing around it some explanations. A third web we could create would be “How to help bees from disappearing” and then each student could write about either of the webs a paragraph in more detail using information from the webs.

4. Book review citation for NONFICTION book:
(2010, June 1). School Library Journal. http://www.booksinprint2.com.leo.lib....#

[Alycia Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helps answer questions about bees, and especially why honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate. This book allows the reader to meet people through the reading, who are trying to solve the ultimate question on what is happening to the bee population. The book goes from talking about how disappearing bees made news, to the benefits of bees, to different kinds of bees, to factors causing the disappearing honeybees, to how scientists are working to solve the mystery and what we can do to help as well. I found it to be interesting how it took one beekeeper to discover thousands of bees had disappeared to make the news. The reason it made the news was because he talked to beekeepers across the country and they all were having the same problem. I found it to be interesting how informational this piece of children’s literature truly was. Personally, I learned a lot about what bees do for the world and found it to be extremely fascinating, which I feel all elementary grades would benefit from such an informative book like this particular one.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrated with photographs.

Starts with the disappearance of bees from one beekeeper and explains the problem nationally and what people think may be causing it (and why losing bees is a big deal).

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting way and kinder way to describe the decrease of the bee populations. Also like the recycle programs gives children a way they can pitch in with a situation that hard for them to help with something that adults are one of the main problems.

[Julianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Important topic but not heavy on information. Could use the text as intro into the impact humans have on our declining bee population.

[Tara Dryml]

It was an informational book with many theories on why the bees were disappearing and some possible solutions to fixing it. The cause still remains unknown. (Informational Book.)

[Tristan Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative and I even learned some facts about bees I didn't before. Did you know there is a bee that likes to drink our sweat?! They won't sting unless you swat at them.

[Aljoharah]

Twin text:
Clark, S. (2014) the Honeybee That Learned to Dance. Createspace Independent Publisher.

Rationale:

I selected the buzz on bees' book because it is about a serious issue of honeybees' disappearance. This book has many information about the bees' jobs. They play a very important role in the pollination process. I believe this book will be a good resource for students to learn more about the importance of honeybees. It has many facts about colony collapse disorder (CCD). For the fiction book I chose The Honeybee That Learned to Dance. It will be a great introduction to the life of bees. It is a fun story about honeybee named Hummy. Hummy grow up and learns to be a forager. She overcomes many challenges to be a great forger. This interesting story is full of information about bees and their language which is dancing. Kids will enjoy reading it, because it has colorful drawing pictures and many facts illustrated in a funny ways.

Text Features:

Timeline, subheadings, illustrations, photos.

Text Structure:

Problem and solution. (Discuss the honeybees disappearance and how the scientists still try to solve the problem).
Questions and answers about factors causing this disappearance.

Strategy Application:

I will start with the fiction book to make the students familiar with the bee life. Then, I would like to use Directed Reading-Thinking Activity. This book has many questions, so I will try to let them make a brief prediction about the answers to these questions. That will help them to think while they read. Each student should write some answers while we read the book. After we finish, we will discuss their predictions and why they think of this prediction, so they need to come up with clues if they can.

[Sunday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know bees are involved in making blue jeans? In this easy to read text, the authors highlight the importance of bees in the pollination of plants that affect our everyday lives and the mysterious disappearance of one-third of honeybees in the United States. While the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is currently unknown, there are ways children can act to save the bees including planting a bee garden and contacting local beekeeping organizations. There are up-close pictures of bees and the numerous plants they pollinate. There are photos of beekeepers at work taking care of bees, transporting bees in trucks to large farms across the country, and posing with products they make like beeswax candles and honey. This would make a good read aloud to preschool and primary students interested in the wonders of nature.

Review published in IRA Reading Today May 2011

This title would make for a good read aloud in the primary grades - especially as part of an integrated unit on the life cycle and importance of bees.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The use of photography in this book is phenomenal and the message important. Facts shared in the book (like how many bees it takes to help a crop and that hives for this purpose are moved around the country) are fascinating. We enjoyed this book and the authors handled well not overdoing the scary aspect that this topic has on humankind.

[Michele Knott · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this book awhile ago, but reread it for my bee theme post. This book is the first one I read about the bee epidemic - thousands of them going missing. I like the format of this book - question and answer. Good for showing how scientists pose a question and hypothesize and then go about finding their answers.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Photographs and information on bees and why they are disappearing. Explores multiple reasons. Not as detailed as the great "Scientists in the Field" series book, THE HIVE DETECTIVES, but good information presented in a fairly simple manner.

[Mrs. Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, however, the title lead me to believe it would tell me why they are disappearing. I knew of the mystery of their disappearance and took the book of our librarian's shelf because I thought it had the answers.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of questions, very few answers. While the photography is phenomenal, the information introduces but doesn't give many questions. Too much theory. On the other hand, my kids became interested in bees and the problem of CCD when we read this together. So overall, a pretty decent book on bees.

[Kylee S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great to teach children all the uses of bees and an over view of why they are disappearing. I learned things about bees that I had never known before. They help make a lot of things that we use today. I really liked the pictures in this book.

[Franny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love that this picture book explains the serious issue of decreasing numbers of honeybees in kid-friendly terms. However, I would have liked to read more about possible causes (as promised by the title) than what was delivered.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent discussion and photographs.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

great info on why bees are disappearing and what that means

[Stephany Albritton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has so much info about bees and many real life Pictures

[Jacquelyn Arbegast]

Great book to use to teach about bees and their purposes, and why they's important to humans.