Bumblebee

Have you heard of the ‘cuckoo bee’ which tries to invade the nests of bumblebee queens and use the nest and the worker bees to raise her own young? This is the kind of detail likely to intrigue the under eights and, indeed, this narrative is full of interesting information clearly expressed. The written text takes us through the life cycle of the queen bee in some depth, from her emergence from the mouse hole where she has spent the winter through to the building of a bee colony and the laying and nurturing of the eggs that will become the young worker bees. Once the nest is well established, with honey and pollen stored, she lays more eggs and these will produce new queen bees and male drones. The pollination process is carefully explained and this is the kind of book which is a stepping stone towards the more impersonal language of mature informational writing which older primary school children encounter. The illustrations show the natural world as the bees might see it. The creatures are hugely magnified so that young readers can see the veins on their wings, the segmentation of their legs and their rather fierce-looking faces.