Retelling: Nyuki, a particularly anxious young larva is guided through her fears by her older and wiser sister Dvorah to become an older/wiser mentor to another young bee, Melissa, herself after (spoiler alert) Dvorah dies defending the hive.
Thoughts and feelings: This book is very carefully researched and written. Apart from personifying the animals and a spattering of witty science puns intending to capture and hold the attention of audiences young and old, the author, Jay Hosler, stays true to bee behaviors. I learned a lot and because it had such a nice story arch, I'm more likely to remember what I learned. I read this book aloud to my son (7 years) and he loved it. He was fascinated by the big bloom theory and the character of Zambur who talks in the third person. As we were reading, a whole lot of questions about bees were raised. The author answered many in a strictly nonfiction chapter at the end of the book. ( )

Recommended by Hannah at the Carle

This unique graphic novel takes a bee's-eye view of life in the hive, as a worker bee called Dvorah (all the names in the book are the word for bee in other languages) nurtures her sister Nyuki. Nyuki clearly missed some important bee memos and is surprised and either dismayed or delighted by pretty much everything she learns - and she learns a lot (as does the reader, unless the reader already has a PhD in the apis clan). A marvelous story of life and loss, filled with remarkable bee facts and detailed, accurate, yet expressive drawings of bees, spiders, dung beetles, birds, and flowers.

See also: Honeybee by Candace Fleming; Pea, Bee, and Jay by Brian Smith
Quotes

"As a bee gets older, her responsibilities change....That's the way of the hive. We all do what needs to be done." (Dvorah to Nyuki, 11)

"You think doing the mundane is miraculous."
"That's a virtue." (Dvorah and Nyuki, 45)

[Cranky-looking bee expression on Nyuki, 49)

"Most living things live alone and fend for themselves. Honey bees are a rare example of animals that live together for their mutual benefit." (Sisyphus the dung beetle to Nyuki, 72)

"You aren't the center of the universe, y'know. You're part of a larger community." (Sisyphus, 74)

"There's risk in living, Nyuki....Why am I not surprised. You finally learn a lesson...and it's the wrong one." (Dvorah, 78)

"I live to die so that the clan may live."
"That's absurd."
"That is the way of the hive." (Zambur and Nyuki, 93)

"You're afraid? I'm the one dying."
"And I'm the one that is being left behind." (Dvorah and Nyuka, 101)

"No one survives life." (121) ( )

children's middlegrade graphic educational fiction.

I did learn a lot about honeybees, though I'll forget most of it. A quick read though--recommended to anyone who loves the graphic format. ( )

I was excited to see that Jay Hosler was doing another bee book because I loved his Clan Apis in the '90s and immediately placed a library hold on The Way of the Hive: A Honey Bee's Story without reading anything but the title. But then I was disappointed when I got the book and found it was just Clan Apis with a new title and coloring. But THEN I was excited to realize that since I had it in hand without the need of scrounging through dozens of comic book long boxes, I had a great reason to re-read Clan Apis!

What a marvelous fusion of story and educational material! You get to follow Nyuki the bee through her entire life as she meets new characters, has dangerous adventures, and makes you genuinely happy to learn about bees -- even if there are puns involved. It's humorous and dramatic and got there long before Jerry Seinfeld made bees all weird and creepy.

Parents be warned, this book does the whole circle of life thing, with some major bee deaths along the way. ( )