As the hive prepares for winter, worker bee Scout embarks on a food-foraging expedition, searching for enough nectar and pollen to survive. Huber's simple but dynamic language hums with an avian vibrancy. In Lovelock's watercolor, acrylic ink, and colored-pencil illustrations, splattered dots represent pollen and hailstones; textured brushstrokes convey flight patterns, vibrating wings, and pelting rain. A satisfying early science book. Ind.

As the hive prepares for winter, worker bee Scout embarks on her initial food foraging expedition. She uses her remarkable apian senses to find “the last flowers of the fall” and convey their location to fellow bees so they can collect enough nectar and pollen to survive until spring. Obstacles and dangers such as poor weather and hungry predators add believable drama to Scout’s mission. Huber’s simple but dynamic language hums with a vibrancy befitting a bee, especially when read aloud. In addition to the narrative, Huber places brief scientific facts alongside Scout’s story, presenting pertinent bits of information in a distinct font (“There are about 50,000 female bees in a hive, and very few males”). Lovelock’s watercolor, acrylic ink, and colored-pencil illustrations also contain a similar level of detail. Splattered dots represent pollen, hailstones, and an aerial view of flowers; textured brushstrokes convey flight patterns, vibrating wings, and pelting rain. Lovelock presents Scout as an appealing character yet in the main anatomically correct. Like a younger sibling to Loree Griffin Burns’s The Hive Detectives (rev. 5/10), Flight of the Honey Bee is engaging, informative, and mindful of its intended audience. It’s a genuinely satisfying early science book for young readers—right down to the index on the endpapers. jennifer lu

A New Zealand import describes a worker honeybee's scouting mission. Naming his protagonist Scout for her current role in the hive, Huber delivers a present-tense narrative of her odyssey. It is fall, and Scout seeks its "last flowers." Through winds and past a hungry black bird, she finds a "sea of flowers" from which she gathers nectar and pollen. A sudden hailstorm temporarily grounds her, and when she arrives home, guard bees are battling a wasp that's attempting to rob the hive. Once inside, she does her waggle dance so her "sister bees" can find her meadow and harvest enough nectar to make honey for the winter. Running alongside the narrative of Scout's day are supplemental facts about the science of bees (flying charges them with static electricity, attracting pollen, for instance), and a brief author's note and index provide additional informational heft. The text at times strains under figurative language that's not quite right--the bees "flick from the hive like golden pebbles"--but by and large, it succeeds in accurately dramatizing honeybee behavior. Lovelock's full-bleed paintings, done in watercolor, acrylic ink and colored pencil, vary in perspective and scale, making the most of the autumn palette and refraining at all times from anthropomorphizing their subjects. While hardly the only bee book available, this handsome, respectful volume deserves a place on the shelf. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

K-Gr 2-On a golden fall day, a bee makes her first flight as scout, looking for flowers for the bees in her hive to harvest. Focusing on the insect's journey, the story introduces the shared work of the bee colony and the basic scheme of honey production. "An arresting smell drifts on the breeze. Scout locks onto this scent" and soon finds herself in "an ocean of flowers." Not all of the quest is pretty. There's an attacking blackbird and a thunderstorm from which the bee must find protection. The well-paced text is set in warm, bright scenes. The realistic figure of the bee contrasts with soft, impressionistic backgrounds in orange and gold, blue and green hues. The narrative, set to one side or the other of the spread, is accompanied by a bit of straightforward, factual explanation in smaller, italicized type. Scout carries the pollen back to her hive, dancing instructions to her sister bees, who then fly off to gather the precious nectar. There are many fine books on this insect, but this one will be welcome in libraries that can use just a little more for children in the early grades. Huber provides an opening note on the importance of the bee as "the planet's greatest pollinator" and closes with a cautionary note that "honey bees are dying out." He doesn't mention the current debacle of collapsing bee colonies in the U.S. (he's from New Zealand), but he does advise young readers on simple steps to help pollinating insects.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.