The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees

by Meredith May Narrated by Candace Thaxton

Overview

An extraordinary story of a girl, her grandfather and one of nature's most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee.

Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.

May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. Her mother had receded into a volatile cycle of neurosis and despair and spent most days locked away in the bedroom. It was during this pivotal time in May's childhood that she learned to take care of herself, forged an unbreakable bond with her grandfather and opened her eyes to the magic and wisdom of nature.

The bees became a guiding force in May's life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival, and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child. Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A moving memoir… A fascinating and hopeful book of family, bees, and how ‘even when [children] are overwhelmed with despair, nature has special ways to keep them safe.’” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] sharply visceral memoir.” —Booklist

“Powerful… Moving and thoughtful.” —Publishers Weekly

“Filled with hope, grace, beauty, and wisdom, this book is like warm honey in the sunshine. It beautifully illustrates how nature - even honeybees - can teach and heal us, if only we open our minds and hearts. It's the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished it—a rare treasure—and you don't have to be a bee lover to be deeply moved by May’s wonderful story. I'm recommending it to everyone I know." —Stacey O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Wesley the Owl

"Captivating and surprising.... If you've ever been stung by a bee you will instantly forget the venom and remember forever the sweetness and redemption bees offer in this extraordinary book." —Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of How To Be A Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus

"If Meredith May's book was simply an ethology of bees I would devour every word; her prose is tender, thoughtful and transporting. But The Honey Bus is so much more - a memoir of aching loneliness, reckoning and redemption. Beautiful and brave." —Domenica Ruta, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You: A Memoir

“The wounded feminine, the missing masculine, healed by a relationship with honeybees. An innocent child’s hard won journey to adulthood—clear eyed, often very funny, and agonizingly compassionate. The Honey Bus is all these things and more—so if you’ve ever been a lonely child, or want the world to become a kinder place, here is your book.” —Laline Paull, author of The Bees

"The Honey Bus is a rare treat for true storytelling deeply rooted in science. Everyone will leave this book with much more knowledge about bees and humanity, and the compassion that lives at the intersection of the two. [A] captivating coming of age family story." —Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D., author of The Bee: A Natural History

"To read about Meredith May's bee family and her human family is to garner heart strength. A true story in every sense." —Maxine Hong Kingston, bestselling author of The Woman Warrior

Kirkus Reviews

2019-01-13

A moving memoir that tells the story of how helping her grandfather tend his beehives helped a girl survive a troubled childhood.

Former San Francisco Chronicle reporter May's (co-author: I, Who Did Not Die, 2017) parents separated when she was 5. Her troubled, emotionally distant mother moved her and her younger brother back to the rural home shared by her own mother and her mother's second husband, who tended beehives all over Carmel Valley in California. After the author's mother took to her room and refused to deal with the kids, the author spent most of her nonschool hours with "Grandpa," driving around in his old truck to inspect hives, learning about bees, and eventually assisting him to harvest honey in an old bus he had rigged up just for this purpose. May balances the familiar story of an inadequate mother who veers between neglect and occasional abuse with a clear portrayal of her gratitude for the thoughtful, dependable man who taught her to reach out beyond her toxic nuclear family and make her way into the wider world, encouraging her to go to college and not let herself be defined by her mother's weaknesses. Her love of nature, too, and particularly of the unexpected intricacies of the ways bees behave, has provided her with a sense of peace and perspective. "Over time," she writes, "the more I discovered about the inner world of honeybees, the more sense I was able to make of the outer world of people." May also weaves into the narrative intriguing facts about the social lives and roles of honeybees, and she describes with affection the details of the process of producing honey and the role the beekeeper plays in the lives of bees. While her subject may be honeybees, they serve as a launching point for a tale of self-discovery and the natural world at large.

A fascinating and hopeful book of family, bees, and how "even when [children] are overwhelmed with despair, nature has special ways to keep them safe."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170097524
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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