The Book Spot
by Deborah Thompson
Welcome to my inaugural column on good books for all readers, especially K-5. In this column, I will recommend exemplary titles that are linked through themes—seasonal, holiday, author or genre.
It is a well-documented fact that children lose educational ground during the summer (the summer brain drain). One of the best ways to stop this decline is through reading nonfiction—the format that all students encounter more and more as they move up in the grades.
I invite parents of young readers to read the books aloud to their children. It is amazing what one can learn from reading a children‘s book- so you older readers out there, do not let the fact that the books listed are for mainly grades 3-5 keep you from picking up one to read. Personal interest, not reading level, is the most important reason for choosing a book. A longer list of recommended summer nonfiction can be found on the church literature table.
Click here to see Deborah’s Bee-Themed List
This month's theme: The Amazing Honeybee
It‘s bee season. Bees are captivating creatures, and the honeybee is perhaps the most appealing of all bees.
Here are some fun facts about honeybees:
They live in colonies that can survive for many years. They communicate through dancing (a round dance and a waggle dance), vibrating, and send-ing chemical signals from their bodies. They can only sting once. They pollinate many different flowers and flowering trees. They produce delicious honey from pollen. The honey is used to feed their young. The honey bees produce takes on the flavor and color of the flowers pollinated, e.g. clover hon-ey, orange blossom honey, and apple blossom honey, to name a few. Many honeybees are dying (colony collapse disorder), and scientists do not know exactly why.
To learn more about honeybees, below are some excellent books and websites:
1. Allen, Judy. Are You a Bee? Illustrated by Tudor Humphries. Kingfisher, 2004.
2. Buchman, Stephen. Honeybees: Letters from the Hive. Delacorte, 2010.
(a book for older readers)
3. Burns, Loree Griffin. The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe
Photographs by Ellen Horasimowicz. Houghton Mifflin, 2010.
4. Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive. Illustrated by Bruce Degen.
Scholastic, 1996.
5. Gibbons, Gail. The Honey Makers. Morrow, 1997.
6. Heiligman, Deborah. Jump into Science: Honeybees. Illustrated by Carla Golembe.
National Geographic, 2007.
7. Micucci, Charles. The Life and Times of the Honeybee. Orchard, 1995.
8. Rockwell, Anne. Honey in a Hive. Illustrated by S.D. Schindler. Collins, 2005.
9. Rotner, Shelly & Anne Woodhall. The Buzz on Bees: Why Are They Disappearing?
Photographs by Shelly Rotner. Holiday House, 2010.
10. Slade, Suzanne B. What if There Were No Bees? Illustrated by Carol Schwartz.
Picture Window Books, 2010.
Websites: