Title: UnBEElievables
Author: Douglas Florian
Genre: Children’s Picture Book ages 4-8, poetry
Publication: Simon and Schuster, March 2012
My Star Rating: 4 Stars out of 5 = I Like It
Summary Statement: Cute and Educational Poems about Honeybees For Children
Final
I first became acquainted with the poetry and artwork of Douglas Florian about a decade ago when my oldest child was a toddler. His poems are whimsical and kids enjoy hearing them read aloud. The first books we read over and over were just poems with artwork. Insectlopedia is our family favorite.
This volume is entirely about honeybees. Besides the poem on a topic that educates primarily and entertains secondarily, there is a paragraph at the bottom of the page with factual information to read aloud or talk to your child about. Each topic has a two page spread with artwork on one page and the poems on the other.
The last poem is about the current problem of honeybee die-off. It’s not too doomsday, but I feel it may be unnecessary. Can we let little kids be innocent little kids for just a short while? The inclusion of factual information with each poem makes it an “educational” book not just a fun book to read that you can’t help but learn from. Something more important would perhaps teach kids to not be scared to death of bees they see when they are outside and to just leave them alone rather than scream their heads off, think the bees are out to get them, and to try to kill them all. I can’t tell you how many girls and boys I see flipping out over seeing a bee flying by or on a flower gathering pollen, minding their own business. Let’s teach kids that bees are not out to harm us but irrational behavior of humans can scare them and make them sting us!
I liked the book and enjoyed the artwork. It’s a book that is perfect for a public library or school library to own so that the most kids can get the use out of it. It would be a great read aloud for any child at home or in the classroom, from toddler ages up through grade three.
P.S. If you don't want to inform your kids about the die-off you can choose to just skip the last poem!
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program for the purpose of writing a review on Amazon.com. For my bog's full disclosure statement see the link near the top of my blog's sidebar.