Illustrations are large, sometimes occupying the whole page, flat, but strongly marked. The text is rather too elementary to be enjoyed by adults. There is a typo "the larvae grow into a pupa" which mixes the singular and plural. There is no part about beekeeping. ( )

I thought the book “The Life Cycle of the Honeybee” would be a great book to teach young readers about bees. The first reason that I liked the book was because it was a nonfiction book, but it was told in story form. The narrator follows the queen bee and the worker bees throughout the hive and explains what is going on at each stop. For instance, the book begins with the queen laying the eggs and the larvae hatching, then explains the different jobs of drones, workers, and the queen, and finally explains the process of how honey is made in the hive. Presenting the facts in story form makes it much more interesting and comprehensible for a young reader. The reader feels as if they are travelling through the hive with the narrator because of the descriptive language and vivid illustrations. Another reason the book is so kid friendly is because of the simple language. For example, “After finding flowers, a bee flies home. Other workers smell her food. They want to find flowers too.” The simple sentence structure allows the facts to be broken up so that the reader can absorb all the information easily. Lastly, all of the illustrations in the book are labeled and there is a glossary in the back which is very helpful to clarify more complicated terms such as cells, drone, larvae, and pupa. The big idea of the book is to outline the life of a honeybee hive. ( )

I really enjoyed this picture book. One of the reasons I liked this book was because of the language used in the book. The vocabulary in the book is a bit beyond the reading level for the kids, but a glossary is provided in the back of the book for them to reference it. Some of the words used are drones, larvae, and pupa. The descriptions of the types of bees are very basic but informative; the reader is truly learning something while reading.
A second reason I liked this book was because of the illustrations. The illustrations in the book were very accurate; they were the perfect mix of accuracy and cartoon. The illustrations were drawn at a level where the children would be able to understand exactly what is happening in the story. The bees are drawn with furry bodies, accurate body measurements, and consistency in each picture.
The big idea that I picked up on in this story is that there is a lot more about bees than just stinging and honey! ( )