Vanishing Honeybees

Vanishing Honeybees

Juvenile non fiction
Last fall a group of college students was touring Orono
Community Garden. None of them could identify growing carrots until I
did a Bugs Bunny imitation. I was flabbergasted. Kids today are too
often kept quite in the dark about where their foods come from and the
factors that affect their availability. This is not a good thing.
Sandra Markle's The Case of the Vanishing Honeybee: A Scientific
Mystery gives kids an up close and personal look at a serious problem
the best and brightest scientists around the workd are trying to
solve--with good reason--drastic declines in bee populations. A
number of theories are offered. The lives of bees and their
importance to humans are embedded within this context. Photographs
are pretty amazing. Finally ways people are trying to solve the
problem are described. Kids are given resources for further reading
and ways they can help bees thrive.
On a personal note, even though snow is still piled up very high,
seeds have been ordered for this sumner's Orono Community Garden. As
I do every year, I am looking forward very much to this wonderful
project.
A great big shout out goes out to John and Shelley who will being
together a great crew and give us all a wonderful experience and Mika
our canine mascot extraordinaire.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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