A Bear, a Bee, and a Honey Tree

August 1, 2022
It isn't hard to tell that an animator worked on this book. Someone is moving on nearly every page of this picture book. A bear is eagerly pursuing honey or a swarm of bees is chasing after the bear. Even the endpapers show the path of a bee in flight. Scott has a background in animation, and his illustrations of the bear climbing a tree or tumbling through the air feel incredibly vivid. The images of objects are just as marvelous; a beehive, in the middle of a tree, seems to glow. The text is simple, like an itemized list, pairing well with the visuals: "a bear / a bee / a honey tree." As the list continues, the action builds one line at a time: "a running bear / a patch of weeds / a million bees up in the air." The cloud of bees looks so dense that it's almost possible to believe the artist has painted a million of them, and they're blurred just slightly, so they appear to be in constant motion. The ending isn't difficult to predict--the bees manage to defend their hive from the interloper--but the bear, having gone home hungry, looks dejected enough to earn some readers' sympathies. And while the story is slight, the rhythm of the words is captivating enough to keep readers turning pages. (This book was reviewed digitally.) With popcorn, this book would make a pretty great animated short. (Picture book. 3-5)

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September 26, 2022
Short, punchy words and playful rhymes help Bernstrom (Song in the City) commemorate the victory of a small bee over a large, honey-hungry bear in this playful picture book. After both parties awaken and stretch in the morning light, kinetic digital spreads by Scott (I Was Born a Baby) show the bear, with big, googly eyes and a sheepish expression, stalking the hive through grass while the bee goes about its business collecting pollen. Brief phrases soon pile up in pleasing ways, as when the bear (“a hungry bear/ a honey bear”) first makes an attempt on the goods: “a sneaky busy honey bear// a fretful bee/ a paw in tree// a very angry fuzzy bee.” Not until it hoists itself into the tree does the bee, shown with comically tiny wings and an outraged expression, register the complaint, enlisting the help of its hive-mates. Dramatic lighting—dawn’s glow, the lamp-like shine of the honeycomb, the dusk of evening—amplifies the spreads’ appeal while offering a clear temporal feel. The David-and-Goliath confrontation, and its swarming turnabout, make this a snappy, fast-moving readaloud for youngest readers, with ample visual punch lines to boot. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Book Group. Illustrator’s agent; Emily van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary.