Reading Group Guide
On the first day of Spring, Queen Bee declared that it was time to find flowers for the great nectar and pollen harvest.
Little Bee was afraid.
Queen: Little Bee, it is your first day. Do you have any questions for me?
Little Bee: Gulp... Um… Uh…
Little Bee did have a question. She wanted to know what a flower was, but she was too nervous to ask. So instead she said…
LB: No.
Little Bee didn’t want to let Queen Bee down, so she buzzed off to find the answer for herself.
At first, she didn't learn anything useful at all. [Notebook text: Bear waz asleep, Spider waz scary!, Raccoon waz weird. Art Note: 3 main vignettes alongside notebook vignette showing the Bear fast asleep, Spider looking menacing, and Raccoon in an open window with a bag of flour and covered in some of it pointing to the words “Flour” on the bag.]
Little Bee flew on. She heard a host of baby birds chirping in a tree. She asked them what flowers look like. [Art Note: A nest with many baby birds all with dialogue bubbles. They are all suggesting a different bright color within the bubble.]
Ha! That is very useful, she thought. Flowers are many different colors.
Little Bee flew on. She spotted a loveliness of ladybugs warming themselves in the sun. She asked them how big flowers are. [Art Note: Ladybugs all have dialogue bubbles with arrows pointing up. Maybe a few lady bugs are “stacked” on top of each other to mimic the height of a flower.]
Interesting, Little Bee thought. Flowers are magnificently large.
Little Bee flew on. She spied a colony of ants preparing to march. She asked them what flowers smell like. [Art Note: The ants are all sharing dialogue bubbles with pictures of various fruits you might find at a picnic. ]
That's my finest clue yet, she noted. Flowers smell like a fruit salad.
Little Bee was happy. She had collected some very good information. Now she was sure she could find the best flowers for Queen Bee. She flew straight to the park. [Art Note: a vignette showing his notes in her notebook, checkbox style. Note Book Text: many colorz, very large, smellz like fruit salad (whatever that is?)]
Sure enough, Little Bee found a flower right away. It was the most magnificently large, brightly colored, sweet-smelling flower she could have ever imagined. [Art Note: Toddler in a bright and colorful stroller eating an ice cream, dripping sippy cup, etc.]
As Little Bee buzzed in close, she got a tingle in her bee knees that something was wrong.
WHOOSH! SWISH! SWIPE! LB: Whew! [Art Note: Hands are shown swiping with LB dodging deftly.]
BAM! [Art Note: This spread is one of the hands contacting LB. Lots of colorful and graphic representations of stars and action “lines”. Mostly on pg 24 with some of it bleeding onto page 25. Dark background.]
Little Bee returned to the hive.
Queen Bee: Little Bee! Are you okay?
Little Bee: Can you help me find a less, um... dangerous flower?
[Art Note: This is a closeup of the two. LB looks hurt, but mostly emotionally for not succeeding at her mission. The background is dark, maybe a slight texture of the dark seeds of a sunflower.]
Queen Bee: Yes, my dear Little Bee. [Art Note: This page is zoomed out so you see that they have landed on a sunflower.]
Queen Bee: Yes, I can. [Art Note: Now, the two are small and still on the sunflower as we zoom out, but you can see the full and luscious garden.]
[Art Note: Author’s page page is styled similarly to LB’s notebook in that is looks like a notebook page and full of information about bees.]
