Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber
“The cold is coming, and Scout must find the last flowers of the fall.” Scout the honey bee, the protagonist of this natural history picture book, then heads out in search of sustenance, ducking predators and hiding from the rain; once she finds flowers, she returns to the hive to alert her fellow workers. Directed by Scout, off they go to gather nectar and bring it back to the hive to turn into honey and feed the queen and her subjects through the winter. A new title in the venerable natural history sequence that has included titles such as Davies’ Bat Loves the Night (BCCB 12/01), this follows the series’ traditional practice of counterpointing a simple, focused main narrative with secondary text providing additional details about the [End Page 158] featured species. The prose is polished and informative (“Here is sunken treasure: a cup of sweet nectar. The tip of her tongue, shaped like a miniature spoon, sips the syrup”) and the secondary tidbits are often quite fascinating (“Bees are charged with static electricity during flight, which attracts pollen to their bodies”). Lovelock’s mixed-media art is simply stunning, pairing compositions of vigorous graphic strength with delicate watercolor mottling and precise biological detail. In addition to rich autumnal and honey golds, the scenes are suffused with warm russets and even corals, with sharply geometric artificial beehives and slanting lines of rain adding discipline. A brief note about protecting bees and an index are included.
