Bees: A Honeyed History

I recently saw a cool picture book about bees. The artwork and the whole thinking process that went into it are wonderful.


It's oversized, with an arresting cover. Nice type choice, too!


Then there are the end papers, with this nifty repetitive pattern.

The inside does not disappoint, either. It varies between heavily illustrated spreads and more text-heavy layouts, but even those are well-designed and accessible.

Some of the illustrated spreads:


Which came first, the flower or the bee? And why?


A good explanation of how pollination works, with excellent flower images.


These flowers are shown a bit less cartoonishly, since they are meant to represent specific plants that are favored by bees.


Other pollinators get a few pages, too.


And I especially liked the illustrations of the many kinds of bee hives that humans have created in various places and times.

Thanks to author and illustrator Piotr Socha for all of his beautiful work on the book, and to Abrams Books for translating it from Polish and publishing for English-speaking children.