Annabelle Bee and the Butterfly Tree, by Debra O'Connor (Brown Books Pub Group, 2023, ages 5-8, 32 pp HB, $12.74, Kindergarten - Preschool) Review by Skye Anderson.
What a lovely little book with beehive cells (hexagons, where bees sleep in the hive and also deposit honey) completely covering the inside front and back covers. And can you imagine a bee being best friends with a butterfly?
If you are my age (or thereabouts) or live in Baltimore, you will automatically say "Annabelle Lee" rather than "Annabelle Bee" - but your first-grader will correct you!
Queen Bee Mom gently wakes Annabelle in the morning and her first view is of the nearby butterfly tree - so full of beautiful orange butterflies who dry their large beautiful wings in the morning sunshine. Annabelle meets Benjamin Butterfly and they fly around together all day, sampling flowers, dipping and sipping, until something bad happens and Annabelle has to save Benjamin! In turn, Benjamin has to save Annabelle and then another scary thing happens - Queen Bee Mom says most of the the bees (family and friends) have to move to another location, so the bees start their search for a new home. But Annabelle and Benjamin don't want this to happen. What can they do? Can they find a new home for the bees in time?
Learn about bee dances and what they mean, learn about swarms and read a page full of bee facts before the book closes. But perhaps more importantly than bee facts is what young readers learn about friendship and working together. All in all, a truly lovely little bee book!
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