Bee & Me

Jay (The Twelve Dancing Princesses) blends fact and fancy in this sweet wordless story about a girl’s friendship relationship with a bee. Initially startled when the bee buzzes into her bedroom in a high-rise apartment building, the girl rushes for a flyswatter. But she quickly recognizes that the bee could use her help, and she revives it with sugar water. The snack does its job and then some: soon, the bee is larger than the girl, and it carries the girl to a city park where they collect pollen from wildflowers and scatter it across the city. In cozy oil paintings, Jay mixes soaring spreads, smaller panels, and kicky spot images to clearly convey the story visually. She also fills the pages with urban details to pore over—especially the activities of the girls’ neighbors, who include the bird-loving boy upstairs that she befriends after she bids the bee a fond farewell A closing note points to the plight of the dwindling honeybee population and suggests plants that readers can grow to help bee populations. Ages 2–5. (Mar.)