In the Trees, Honey Bees: A Rhyming Nature Book for Kids

by Lori Mortensen, Cris Arbo (Illustrator)

Here is the ideal introduction for preschoolers and early elementary children to insects that are not only amazing but also critically important to humans. Inside the hive views of a wild colony of honey bees offer close ups of the queen, the cells, even bee eggs. Simple verse will engage a young child, while sidebars with fascinating information satisfy the somewhat older child. Parents, teachers, and kids will love this picture book. The detailed art shimmers with life, highlighting each hair or grain of pollen on the bees. A wild hive in a tree in her own backyard served as a model for the artist! Backmatter

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

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Lori Mortensen is an award-winning children's author of more than 100 books. Her books, which reviewers have praised as “stellar” “as good as it gets” and “begs to be read aloud,” have been published by such notable publishers as HarperCollins, Henry Holt, Abrams, Bloomsbury, and Peachtree. Popular releases include, Arlo Draws an Octopus, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Rob Sayegh, Jr., If Wendell Had a Walrus, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Matt Phelan, Cowpoke Clyde Rides the Range, a Bill Martin Jr., Picture Book Award Nominee and the sequel to Amazon bestseller Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, and picture book biographies Nonsense! The Curious Story of Edward Gorey and Away with Words, the Daring True Story of Explorer Isabella Bird.
When she’s not greeting geese at the lake, or putting her nose in a mystery, she’s tapping away at her keyboard, conjuring, coaxing, and prodding her latest stories to life. Today, she lives in the foothills of Northern California with her family and all birds that flock to her feeder—including a gluttonous squirrel.

Reviews

[Niang Muang · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a book great way learn about Honey Bees. It starts out by telling where honey bee live. After that author talks about what did honey bee do to get their daily foods. The honey comb reproduction and community function was also part of this book. And finally, the book talks about the repair of the honeycomb when a predator attack the egg and comb for food.

The major theme of the book is about nature and community.

I like this book because it is easy to read at the same time it has so much factual information and vocabulary about the bee. I like the use of realistic picture illustration because it makes the reader translate the knowledge back to the reality.

I recommend this book to middle school age student because the short rhymes on each page pulled the reader’s attention to the next page. Meanwhile each page has its own way to explore more which allow reader to dig deeper about the bee. I recommended this book on the basis of the illustration because the realistic color and drawing because that help reader get a reality like picture representation in their mind. I recommend this book as a scholastic reading because it have a lot of accurate facts about the information. At the endo of the story the author provided a link for reader who would like to do their own research on Honey Bee.

[Hannah Holthaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - there are just a few words on each page that rhyme, but then at the bottom of the pages there is a small paragraph that contains lots of information and gets more in-depth. It talks about the different kinds of bees and their "jobs" in the hive. There is also a section at the end of the book that gets more scientific and contains a lot more information on bees.

[Terry]

This is a fantastic story about how honey is made by honey bees. Follow the day of a honey bee, with exquisitely detailed illustrations that are biologically accurate and just gorgeous to look at!

[Annie MacPherson · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason I feel like I didn't learn anything interesting about bees while reading this book. The illustrations help a little to inspire interest, but the poetry is forced and the prose is banal. Bees are awesome! This book is not.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book is a detailed look at honey bees - how they lived, the three different types of honey bees, and what their specific roles are in the colony. Very interesting with beautiful illustrations, and extra information in the back.

[Jacob Niichel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informational book,
I found out that there can be 15,000-50,000 bees in a single hive and that the worker bees can feed the larva up to 100 times a day.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find out how bees make honey in their hives.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read and understand the lives of honeybees. Fascinating for kids and illustrations are great.

[YingYu Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the illustration and the easy-to-understand information boxes

[Emily Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good learning book and illustrations are awesome.

[Jostalady]

This could work with a family storytime where I only read the short (larger) sentences targeting the preschoolers and just select some of the information from the more in depth paragraph for older children. To keep it interesting for the younger readers we can make bee sounds and fly like a bee.

Possible craft: Use bubble wrap squares as a paint stamp to create honeycomb and glue bee body pieces together on top. Think process, not product. Pre-cut a number of the bee bodies for younger, but resist the urge to pre-print honeycombs as that is an important part of the process.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Thoughts:

Here’s the truth: I’m prejudiced against small presses. Why? I’ve been given a lot of freebies from small publishers. For the most part, there is a reason why a book is only published by a small press; big presses aren’t impressed and the book is passed on.

So I anticipated that this book would be a bust. Not so. This one is a keeper. Brilliant illustrations. Terse yet action filled text. Additional information provided for those who want to know more. A nice bibliography.

And the children loved it. Ten, they shouted, when I asked for ratings, and I had to remind them that five was a top score. I can’t wait to share this with teachers and other kids. It will be checked out. A lot.

A Sample:

“Lots of food.
Hungry brood.

(bottom of page) Three days after the queen lays an egg, it hatches into a hungry larva. Nurse bees feed it a rich supply of food from glands in their heads. During its egg and larva stages, nurse bees will feed it more than 100,000 times.”

Children’s Comments:
Aryn, 6, said, "I liked the rhyme. I liked the pictures. I liked how the story went with the pictures."
Kaylin, 6, said, "I liked the color of the pictures."
Joaquin, 6, said, "I liked the part where the bees were in the hive."
Stevie, 6, said, "I liked how everything was so close."

Children’s Ratings: 5, 5, 5, 5

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. This book was awarded the 2012 California Readers Collection, 2010 Skipping Honor Award, and 2009 Silver Moonbeam Children's Book Award.
2. The appropriate grade level is kindergarten to third grade.
3. This book contains information about honey bees; it tells the readers the different jobs of a honey bee and what they do throughout the seasons. For example, the page would say, "Bear attack! Sting and smack." and it describes the job of guard bees who drive the intruders away.
4. There are very beautiful illustrations that show the daily lives of honey bees. It contains very few words but it manages to get the message across which was an inside view of a wild colony of honey bees. This book is very organized and smooth as it goes through each season and role of honey bees.
5. a) An in-class use would be adding it to the classroom library especially on a unit of insects.
b) Another use can be the daily life of bees and the unit being bees.
c) Since bees are going extinct, this is a great way to inform the students about the current events and a great introduction to current events.

[Sunday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each two-page spread includes short rhyming phrases followed by informational text that supports the central idea in the rhyme. Mortensen describes the work of the different types of bees in a colony and Arbo’s illustrations provide close-up views of the bees at their tasks. Domain specific vocabulary like “propolis” or “bee glue” is embedded in the text and facts sheet at the end, increasing the rigor of the content for young listeners.

This title would make a great read aloud to primary grade students - as part of an integrated unit on the life cycle of bees and related environmental issues.

[Heather Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cris Arbo used a wild hive in her Virginia backyard as the model for these illustrations. “In her imagination,” says the biography, “she climbed right inside the hive to offer a bee’s-eye view of the world.” Arbo succeeded utterly, and children will be fascinated by the perspective and detail. The narrative is seasonal as well as the explaining different functions of the hive members. A wonderful book for libraries and classrooms.

[Arminzerella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to honey bees. It describes the life cycle of the honey bee and what goes on in the hive for a young audience. The main text is simple and in verse, but pertinent facts about honey bees are given with each 2-page spread. Accurate llustrations of bees and honeycomb complement the text. Like the life cycle of the bee, the text circles back to "In the trees! Honey bees!" Additional information and a list of resources about honey bees are included at the end.

[Lindsey Richard]

This book was very simple with pictures showing the main information, with two or three words on each page to explain what was happening. The book also rhymed. It contained a small box at the bottom of each page to allow the reader to get additional information if they so chose. I learned a few things about bees in this book I had no clue about, so it really proves young students will be getting useful information.

[Brooklyn Schamens]

Although this book did not really have words for the main part of the story, it was very informational. On each page at the bottom, it would list different facts based on what was happening in the story. I think kids would enjoy this book, because it is simple, yet there are interesting facts on each page.

[Alexandria Shafer]

I liked this book, the pictures especially. They are very realistic which helps when teaching children about different things. It is a very informational children's book with great facts at the end of the book. Great for any young children's science class.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This inside-the-hive view of a wild colony of honeybees offers close-up views of the queen, the cells, even bee eggs. The reader is left with admiration for the remarkable lives of honeybees, whether in the hive or in the field.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple rhyme with more complex companion text. Would go great with Here is the Beehive flannel/fingerplay.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good combination of rhyming text and more detailed information. Really nice, big, detailed illustrations. The page with the wrong-side-up honey comb is a deal-breaker for me.

[Alfajirikali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great illustrations.

[CFAITC]

Simple rhyming words and realistic illustrations describe the life cycle of the honey bee. The book also includes two pages of background information about honey bees.

[June-muioya]

A great science book with rhyming.Great for both knowledge and language.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures and very informative. Held my daughters attention while also teaching her and me about bees.

[Kimberly Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful all around - rhyming words, informative text and eye-catching pictures. This is a book one will explore over and over, finding something new each time.

[Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative tidbits near the bottoms of the pages make this book worth reading. The actual rhymes make up less than a quarter of the text.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolutely beautifully illustrated book has a simple rhyming story that is joined with more complex facts at the bottom of each spread. This is great nonfiction for young researchers!

[Jen Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great example of layered text and perfect rhyme. The facts are fun too! And I'm not saying that just because the author's my friend. :)