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Summary
Summary
A LOVE POEM FROM A FATHER TO HIS TWO SONS, AND A TRIBUTE TO THE BEES THAT POLLINATE THE FOODS WE LOVE TO EAT.
"Sometimes bees can be a bit rude. They fly in your face and prance on your food." And yet... without bees, we might not have strawberries for shortcakes or avocados for tacos!
Shabazz Larkin's The Thing About Bees is a Norman Rockwell-inspired Sunday in the park, a love poem from a father to his two sons, and a tribute to the bees that pollinate the foods we love to eat. Children are introduced to different kinds of bees, "how not to get stung," and how the things we fear are often things we don't fully understand.
Shabazz Larkin made his picture book illustration debut with Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table , followed by his author/illustrator debut with A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food , both named American Library Association Notable Children's Books. He is a multi-disciplinary artist and an advertising creative director. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons. SHABAZZLARKIN.COM.
Author Notes
Shabazz Larkin made his illustrator debut with FARMER WILL ALLEN AND THE GROWING TABLE and his author/illustrator with A MOOSE BOOSH: A FEW CHOICE WORDS ABOUT FOOD . Both were named Notable Children's books by the American Library Association. He is also an advertising creative director and multi-disciplinary artist, painting vibrant portraiture on canvas, typographic printing techniques and film. He is most known for his -oeBlack Magic- collection, a series of portraits that capture the beauty of resilience in black culture. He lives in Nashville, TN. SHABAZZLARKIN.COM
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3--In a holistic--and wholly original--treatment, Larkin spins a buoyant monologue to his (actual) young sons about why bees are to be valued and how they are analogous to rambunctious children; the narrative is threaded with unconditional love for both subjects. Smart ABAB rhymes propel the narrative, while other lyrical structures offer pauses and maintain attention: "Sometimes bees can be a bit rude./They fly in your face and prance on your food…. /And worst of all, they do this thing/called sting./OUCH!" Opening sequential panels present pollination as a love story between bees and flowers that yields fruit. Then, action-packed family scenes--"choreographed" by the artist and composed in layers--follow the African American trio as they interact with the insects, a kite, a balloon, and one another. Hand lettering, bold coloring, and textural and compositional variety (painted-over receding backgrounds; thick brushwork; and inked, figural outlines behind decorated silhouettes) add to the energy. Through child-friendly delights like "picnics with watermelon" and "smoothies with mango," readers will understand what the world would be missing without bee intervention. While an author's note explains that information helped him work through his own issues with bees, his conclusion speaks to universal fears: "It's brave to try to understand the things that scare us." A final spread presents a continuum of bees (by degrees of meanness), along with safety tips. VERDICT Pair with Bethany Barton's Give Bees a Chance to experience persuasive calls to bravery and bee lovefests.--Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library
Publisher's Weekly Review
Starring an affectionate family and a whole lot of bees, Larkin (A Moose Boosh) offers up a sparkling celebration of necessary pollinators, which begins with an explanation of how they work, overlaying images of strawberry blossoms with childlike drawings of a bee: "The bee moves pollen from one flower to another./ Then we wait.... and presto! The flower turns into a fruit you can eat." Subsequent full-bleed spreads, "inspired by the techniques of... Kehinde Wiley and Norman Rockwell," show a family of color interacting with the insects out of doors. Bees "can be a bit rude," the text reads as a father and two sons leap comically from their chairs, and sometimes they sting. But, Larkin explains, without bees, "there'd be no more smoothies with mango./ There'd be no more strawberries for shortcake." Loving bees is like loving his children, who "sting,/ when you're in a bad mood" but are always deeply beloved. Imaginative and playful, Larkin's images of the family's encounters with bees and the fruits and vegetables they help produce helps them understand the role of pollinators--and provides stylish entertainment. A guide to bee species and instructions for avoiding stings are included. Ages 3--7. (Aug.)
Horn Book Review
Larkin expresses love for his sons and for bees; in a poetic text addressing his kids, he admits that both the boys and the bees can sometimes be bothersome, but "we need [bees] just as much / as we need you." Mixed-media illustrations based partly on photos of Larkin and his family include loose diagrams showing the steps of pollination and a range of bee species from "kind" to "kinda mean." An unusual mix of science and, well, sweetness. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Larkin delivers a love poem to bees and his children."When a bee and a flower love each other very much, a fruit is born." The playful tone set in this first sentence carries throughout this loosely rhymed book. Following an opening double-page spread about pollination, Larkin acknowledges that "bees can be a bit rude" and that, "worst of all, they do this thing / called sting. / OUCH!" But if they were gone, along with no bee stings there would be no watermelons, mangoes, strawberries, cucumbers, and more. Then he gets personal, reasoning that children share some characteristics with bees, even stinging "when you're in a bad mood. // But," crucially, "I never stop / loving / you." Accompanying the text is distinctive, motion-filled artwork that overlays line drawings with swaths and daubs of color. Using photos of himself and his children as models for his human characters, he presents two yellow-overalls-clad black children who variously look worried, astonished, and delighted. One close-up image, of a honeybee in a strawberry blossom, is wonderfully tactile, little grains of pollen falling gracefully over a ripe, red fruit below. A closing double-page spread introduces three types of bees and three other stinging insects on a scale from "kind" to "kinda mean" along with a few points of "bee safety etiquette."This paean to bees is just the ticket for moving kids from concern to comfort. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this beautiful exploration of what bees mean to the world and what his sons mean to him, Larkin seeks to alleviate a child's fear of these insects by explaining how they are integral to the creation of their favorite fruits. The singular illustration style combines a relaxed painting method with an overlay of childlike drawings to create scenes bursting with color, action, and moments of humor. The beginning of the book explains the importance of pollination before correlating his sons' behavior to that of bees ""scary"" things that cause him trouble while also paralleling his experience of his children to the fruit he loves. Though young readers might be confused by that juxtaposition, the ""Guide to Bees"" at the end, rating them from ""Kind"" to ""Kinda Mean,"" provides the type of engaging information older picture-book readers enjoy. The gorgeous artwork featuring a family of color, a simplified exploration of entomology, and a note from the author about seeking to understand things that scare us help to make this book a solid recommendation for picture-book collections.--Shaunterria Owens Copyright 2019 Booklist
