Zinnia and the Bees

by Danielle Davis, Laura K. Horton (Illustrator)

Overview

Talk about having a lousy day. While Zinnia's seventh grade classmates are celebrating the last day of school, she's cooped up in the vice principal's office, serving detention. Her offense? Yarn bombing a statue of the school mascot. And when Zinnia rushes home to commiserate with her older brother, Adam, who also happens to be her best friend, she's devastated to discover that he's left home with no explanation. Just when it looks like Zinnia's day can't possibly get any worse, a colony of frantic honeybees mistakes her hair for a hive and lands on her head! Told from the alternating perspectives of Zinnia  a humorous young loner and knitter and an unintentionally comical hive of honeybees, this quirky, heartfelt novel will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt alone, betrayed, or misunderstood as it explores the challenges that come with learning to trust yourself and the often messy process of discovering the true meaning to home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623708672
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Middle-grade Novels
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Danielle Davis grew up in Singapore and Hong Kong and now lives in Los Angeles where she reads, writes, and roller skates. She's earned an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing and her short stories have been published in literary magazines. She's had the privilege of teaching English to middle school and community college students and currently volunteers with literary orgainzations in L.A. Zinnia and the Bees is her first novel.

Interviews

Quirky, unique middle-grade novel with elements of magical realism; explores themes of loss, new friendships, family dynamics, and finding yourself; well-drawn, unconventional characters; relatable narrator

Editorial Reviews

Bee-infested hair makes a strange premise, but it works reasonably well, with chapters narrated by Bee providing absurd humor but also speaking to Zinnia’s feelings of confusion and powerlessness, feelings that she can’t always articulate in her own narration. Her frustration comes through loud and clear, though, until she realizes that it might be her own anger and selfishness that is driving people away. . . .it’s pleasing there’s a happy ending for Zinnia, and it’s an added bonus that the bees relocate to a more fruitful home.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Adding a dollop of magic realism, Davis alternates between Zinnia’s story and the bees’ predicament, both atop their disappointingly pollen-free host and as a species struggling in the world at large. Readers will empathize with Zinnia as she wonders about her missing brother, deals with her mother, and renews fractured friendships. As they follow the bees’ activities, they’ll learn apian facts and gain insight into what is happening to bees in the U.S. This fascinating and unusual look at family, friendships, and insects is a good match for Robin Stevenson’s The Summer We Saved the Bees (2015).

Booklist

06/01/2017
Gr 4–7—They had trusted bee 641, had thought she would find them a new home when they escaped from their hive to become wild and free. They did not plan on living their days out in the curly mess of hair on this human's head, but here they were. Meanwhile, said human, Zinnia, hadn't anticipated spending the summer wearing a hoodie to cover a buzzing mess of bees. In fact, she is not having the summer she expected at all. Her yarn bomb on the last day of school had, well, bombed, and she came home to find that her older brother and most important person in her life, Adam, had left without an explanation. Then Birch, the odd nephew of Zinnia's neighbor, comes to stay for the summer. Zinnia starts to understand what friendship and family really mean and in the process loses and gains some things (the bees, friends). Alternating between Zinnia's and the bees' perspective, this novel forces readers to suspend disbelief, though it does not quite verge into magical realism. Despite the outlandish premise, Davis does an excellent job crafting human characters who are varied in their emotions and grow in awareness. The solution to Zinnia's problems is believable and clever yet still leaves room for change. VERDICT A good fit for a larger collection looking for unusual books on friendship and growing up.—Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

2017-05-31
Zinnia's convinced nothing could be worse than her beloved older brother's sudden, unexplained departure, which leaves her alone with their overbearing dentist mother—till a colony of honeybees takes up residence in her hair.Zinnia responds by wearing a hoodie at all times and staying in her room to knit whenever possible. On a rare outing she meets unflappable Birch, the neighbor's visiting nephew, who is the only person to notice Zinnia's bees. Together they search for Adam and try to figure out how to divest Zinnia's hair of her unwanted tenants. Davis' debut demands that readers check their disbelief at the door. In addition to the bees, she draws secondary characters with broad brushes, especially do-gooder Dr. Flossdrop, who seems determined to alienate her entire family. But she manages to keep it together, embedding readers in Zinnia's believable, often funny perspective with occasional cutaways to the bees, who narrate their side of the misadventure in a wry collective voice that combines snippets of bee biology with fancy (they break dance to "combat despair"). Bee cognoscenti will scoff at the sheer ridiculousness of the premise, but its extreme silliness works its own magic to mitigate this and other hard-to-believe moments, such as the ease with which the rift between Zinnia and her former BFFs seems to be healed. Zinnia, her family, and Birch are evidently white. Horton's illustrations not seen. Not flawless but decidedly offbeat and emotionally true. (Fabulism. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews