Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Bee Tree

Cover art for THE BEE TREE

Author & Illustrator: Patricia Polacco  
Publisher:  Philomel
Publication Year:   1993
Location: Personal Collection

Awards:   School Library Journal starred review

Summary:  When Mary Ellen gets tired of reading, she and Grampa go off to follow a bee to a bee tree. Along the way lots of members of the community join them. When they finally reach the tree they work together to smoke the bees, collect the honeycomb, and then go back to the house for biscuits, tea, and honey! But at the end, Grampa uses the honey to show Mary Ellen that the joys of reading have to be pursued just like they ran after the bees to find the honey.

Classroom Ideas: There some great examples of onomatopoeia as they all chase after the be (slap, bump, honk, tweddle-tweddle-squeak fump!) The theme is well-explained at the end. ("There is such sweetness inside of that book too!")

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