Bee Dance

PreS-Gr 1--This early science picture book focuses on honeybees' fascinating ability to communicate with one another about the whereabouts of food sources. Through minimal language and large, colorful spreads, a bee is depicted finding a prairie full of flowers, returning to the hive, and performing a dance that will indicate the distance and location of pollen to the other worker bees. A concluding page provides more in-depth information about the dance and about the beehives. Rendered in collage with pastel pencil illustrations in tones of mustard, brown, and green, the illustrations portray the interior of a hive and of the stores within, as well as the fields of flowers outside. While attractive, the images do not always clarify the wording. On one spread, the subjects are described as having a "bendy-straw tongue," but the accompanying illustration shows only a bee perched on a flower, with no protruding tongue. VERDICT A good nonfiction read-aloud option; suitable for science and nature units.--Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling School, Pawling, NY