Things are not always what they appear to be in this mezmerizing tale of a bee and a bird's epic journey. These brilliantly hued illustrations by Craig Frazier look good enough to eat, and the simple but surprising story will entrance young readers . . . and everyone else.
Craig Frazier is an illustrating designer who has enjoyed a distinguished career since 1978. He opened his doors as Frazier Design in 1980 and built a practice designing corporate communication, annual reports and advertising. In 1996, he scaled down the design side of his practice to concentrate on illustration (and a few special design projects). Within two years he had developed one of the most distinct and recognized illustration styles in the country. Wit, irony, and simplicity have become the currency of the Frazier style.
He is a frequent contributor to the NY Times and business publications like Time Magazine, Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal to name a few. Amongst his corporate clients are Adobe, American Express, Boeing, Chevrolet, Deloitte, MasterCard, Navigant, The Royal Mail, U.S. Postal Service, and United Airlines. Craig has created seven postage stamps including the 2006 Love stamp and the 2010/11 commemorative Scouting stamps.
Craig has published a 176-page monograph titled The Illustrated Voice, (Graphis Press, 2003.) He is also the author and illustrator of several children’s books.
I like picture books that utilize altering perspectives as you turn the pages, but I didn't feel like this one achieved the effect as well as others of this style. See: Zoom by Banyai
A graphic design-y wordless picture book. You see a zoomed in image and try to interpret it before flipping to the next page. The first time we read it, my kids didn't get what was going on. But then they wanted to keep rereading, because they love being asked questions they already know the answer to.
A book without words that takes the viewer through different perspectives. Could be a good book to illustrate the writing principle of point of view. Similar in some ways to "Big Bug" where one's perspective determines whether something is big or small.
I love how this book shows that sometimes we can judge things right with just a slice of information and sometimes we are surprised at what things turn about to be. And life can be like that sometimes as well.
Title: Bee & Bird Author/Illustrator: Craig Frazier Genre: Wordless Picture Book Theme(s): Animals, Outdoors Brief Book Summary: This book tells the story of a bee that lands on a birds back and the journey that they take as the bird flies around. The bright close up illustrations leave the reader guessing what will they are looking at and where the bird will land next. When the bird does land, it the book carefully portrays the vast world around both bee and bird. Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature) No words are needed to tell the story of a bee s adventures with a bright-eyed red bird across double pages. After the bee lands on the bird s head, the tree where the bird sits is loaded onto a truck. From there, the bird flies to a boldly patterned black and white cow; then off over water, bee still perched on his head. Next seen against a slanted white shape, the bird, we realize on the next double page, is on a sailboat, which appears small above a vast expanse of water. It is a toy boat, we see, as it is lifted out of the water and placed in the bicycle basket of a young man. As the bird flies off the boat, the bee flies away to her hive. The bird ends atop the hive. The paper jacket pictures the bee circling for a landing on the bird s head; on the cover the mission is accomplished. Throughout the book there are constant shifts in point of view of the characters, zooms in and out, with sharp geometric design structure. After a remarkable double-page close-up of what turns out to be the hive with just a bit of the black entrance, the following pages offer a zoom-out views, fine examples of intense graphics to carry the narrative content. Bees fly across the front end papers, while bird silhouettes occupy the end papers. Professional Recommendation/Review #2: Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly) Frazier's (Lots of Dots) crisp graphic sense and supersaturated fields of red, yellow, green, and light blue drive this wordless picture book. Its focus is the play of view and perspective, using the striped, gossamer-winged Bee and red Bird as subjects. The first spread shows columns of yellow and black what can they be? and the next pulls back enough to reveal Bee viewed from above, perched on the gigantic head of Bird; from Bee's point of view, Bird's head is the size of a planet. This book is first cousin to Istvan Banyai's Zoom: it also plays with the idea that something that appears very large (Bird and Bee aboard a sailboat, on what looks like an endless span of stylized waves) turns out to be quite small (it's a toy boat held in the hand of a boy). Here, though, the action takes place on a single stage; Bird and Bee are always there, and the scenery against which they appear is always real. The strong primary colors vibrate against each other, and the patterns have the unattractive pull of a billboard. Response to Two Professional Reviews: Both book reviews discuss the close up images that are unclear at first, but then understood when the scope zooms out. They talk about the vibrant colors and how they intensify the story. Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book works a lot with juxtaposition and perspective because of the way the pictures present themselves in a zoomed in manner, and slowly pull out to reveal the scene. Frazier plays with color and shape a lot. The colors are bright and vivid while the shapes are sharp and the surrounding blank space emphasizes the topic of vastness. Consideration of Instructional Application: This book is great for young children learning to read or write. Before or while they learn to read, children can “read” their own story that goes along with the pictures. Early writers can write a story based off of the pictures. Also, both the early readers and early writers can make their own wordless stories.
Bee and bird is a wordless picture book that tell about the adventure of a bee and a bird. It starts off with the bird and then the bee being on the birds head in a tree. The tree happens to be in a truck. The bird and the bee then fall out of the tree, but their journey continues. You don't know exactly where they are going but you can tell that that are going somewhere together. They then end up in someone's bicycle basket towards the end of the book until they reach their final destination. This is when they reach a honeycomb and you find out that they were on a mission to return the bee home. This wordless picture book is great because the pictures give the reader a lot of information. The part appealed to me the most was the birds body language and gestures. When they fell of the truck and moved towards the cow then had to leave the cow, the bird would gesture at which way they would be going next to inform the bee. A great example of this is when they are in the basket of the bicycle and the bird is leaning and pointing forward as if he is captain and the bee is part of his crew, as well as the happy boy riding his bike. At times it was hard to see the bee because the sizes of the animals were made to be realistic and in this story the bee was getting a ride from the bird by sitting on his head. My favorite part of the book was all the colors and how the illustrations were very playful but truly created a story. This book did a great job at creating a smooth and easy to follow flow. It did this by constantly relating one page after another to the page before it. My favorite part was when the bird and bee fell off the truck and the page had cow print on it but not a cow until the next part where it can be seen that bee and bird landed on a cows back. Overall I think that this picture book is great and allows the reader to truly understand what the author was trying to get across without any text.
I'll admit to sometimes being on the fence when it comes to wordless picture books. Some are fantastic stories unto themselves, like Jerry Pinkey's The Lion and the Mouse and Jeff Newman's The Boys. Others can require so much reader input they're almost not worth the trouble, unless ridiculously beautiful. Still others are of a brand that is not quite fully storytelling, not quite fully concept book. Laura Vaccaro Seeger's books, like First the Egg, would fall into this category. There's a thin story, bolstered by a come-along-and-play type attitude to the narration. A new book, Bee & Bird, from Craig Frazier is another title that would fall into this third category (and in fact, Seeger blurbs the book on the inside jacket cover).
Bee & Bird begins with a close-up of the stripes of a bee, which then backs out into a shot of the bee on a red background, which then backs out into a shot our bee resting on our red bird's head (and so forth). The story unfolds in such pull back reveals and shifts of perspective as we follow our titular pair over fields and water and finally back to the beehive. The art is bright and crisp, and has a note of humor to it. A shot of our heroes looking straight forward made me smile, though I couldn't say exactly why. The progression of images is both logical and surprising in some ways and the cumulative effect is very pleasing. I wouldn't say that author/illustrator Frazier has reached the delightful heights of one of Ms. Seeger's volumes, but Bee & Bird is a definite step in the right direction.
A wordless book that has you analyzing very simple pictures to try to guess what/who/where is going on. Answer is usually given by next page if you couldn't figure it out. Easy story to follow. I think worth trying in preschool storytime. See what they come up with.
1/13/16 Used in B is for theme for the literacy moment. Each kid took a turn on a page spread and told me a color or item that they saw and then I had them write on the whiteboard that word. We had a decent amount of kids take turns, so the fact that you keep backing up to see the bigger picture got a bit lost at the beginning. But they got the idea of it when I just read the last few pages. Definitely want to try this again with having them (like I did at the end with the Beehive) guessing what an item is, and then seeing if they're correct on the next page.
1/17/18 Used in B theme. Had the kids tell me what they saw in the story, and they wrote it on my Dry Erase notebook so it looked like we were adding words to the story. (Didn't even plan that cleverness.) They picked up immediately on the backing out. Really enjoyed it. Had fun pulling out even more B words as we went through. Excellent!
Bee and Bird has a very cute front cover and that's what caught my attention before even opening the book. My take on the book is about a bee and a bird who go on an adventure together. Wordless picture books are good to read with young children because they are able to make up their own story to go along with the book. When you revisit the book the child will most likely make up a whole new story to go along with the pictures in the book. The illustrations really stand out in the book because the colors are so vivid. There is not a lot going on in the pictures so it keeps the story concise, whatever you or the child makes up to go along with the pictures. The illustrator uses a lot of lines in the artwork so it makes for a clear cut picture which I'm always really drawn to. Young children are also very drawn to very bright colors so this is great book to start children with every before then can really form thoughts to make up their own story to the book. The child will be very intrigued by the colors contained on each page.
A simple wordless story is made remarkable by bright, graphic illustrations. This is the story of a bee and a bird and their journey, but what journey are they on? They are in a tree, the tree is on a truck, and then could the truck be driving on the back of a cow? Then there’s a boat on an ocean, that is actually a toy boat. As perspectives shift, the epic adventure becomes more of a neighborhood jaunt. It’s a trip that readers will happily make with the pair, finding surprises at almost every page turn.
Frazier, author of the wonderful Lots of Dots, has created another great book for children. His vibrant illustrations use bold colors, strong shapes, and inventive perspectives to turn a normal day into a series of surprising twists.
Art teachers will embrace this book for its clear depiction of perspective. At the same time, it is also a rocking picture book that young readers will equally enjoy. Appropriate for ages 3-6, older when used to discuss perspective.
Um, so the fact that this book has no words really threw me for a loop. It's a book of pictures only, of this bird and a bee, and the pictures zoom in and out, each time revealing them in a different place and situation. So that's pretty cool. Also, the fact that it has no words means that it is universal. There is no need to translate it because there is nothing to translate other than the title. A wordless book, although kind of an oxymoron, is kind of a cool idea. It makes this book stick out among the rest. Also, with the characters in this book being a bee and a bird, realistically dialogue would not make sense. Animals don't communicate through language, they just do what they want until someone or something objects and makes them stop (in one way or another). And if you don't want to think that hard, there's always an option of writing in words and deciding what exactly this bird and bee are actually doing.
Awards: None Grade Levels: Pre-K through Kindergarten Summary: In Bee & Bird, go on adventures, most of which you don't know until you turn to the next page. From a tree, to a truck, to a cow, to a sailboat, to a bicycle, Bee and Bird never part. However, when Bee sees a beehive he flies away, but Bird stays close by sitting on top of the hive. Review: I really enjoyed the changes in perspective from page to page. On the other hand, I feel like the storyline was lacking, which is important in a wordless picture book. All in all, the graphic illustrations are beaufiul and could possibly pose lots of questions. In Class Uses: Classroom Library, Read Aloud, Write your own story: where will Bird and Bee go next?
A bee and a bird go on a journey in this wordless picture book, which showcases large, boldly colored illustrations presenting different perspectives. For example, large black and gold stripes on a two page spread are, when the page is turned, an upclose view of a bumblee bee seatd on top a large red area which, on the next page, turns out to be the top of the bird’s head. While the artwork is visually stunning, and would be enjoyed by preschool through second grade children, the story seems to be little more than a showcase for the art and is therefore not very satisfying. An additional purchase.
F is for Frazier, Craig “Bee & Bird” As reviewed by Jerry the Minimalist
Summary A graphic designer visually tells the tale of a bird and a bee on a trip.
The visual style was as breathtaking as simple shapes can be. The lack of words first scared, then thrilled me. I live by my words, you know.
In my opinion, the bird should have gotten top billing as this is his book.
Why was it banned? I could see the blind having a problem being discriminated against, but that’s dumb and did not happen here. If a place ever banned this, they would have to be bitten by a radioactive crazy person to become Super Crazy Person, Defender of Weak Bullshit.
Originally rated G by Lucy Thomas A wordless picture book is nicely presented and it will have younger readers trying to guess what the patterns, sizes, and shapes represent on the open faced pages. The vibrant, colorful illustrations tell the simplistic story of the bee and the bird and their surrounding sights. The book held the interest of the Kindergarten class to whom I read this story. They enjoyed following the shapes as they enlarged and seeing/guessing what the next picture would be. I noticed that the binding was starting to tear on the inside front cover pages after I had reviewed the book.
Another bright, geometric book, this one wordless. Bee and bird are friends, and go on an adventure of sorts. The changing perspectives and odd viewpoints are a selling point in this book, but I found it hard to tell what was going on at times.
Primary colored art and clear lines are fun, but lack visual interest for me.
Not recommended for a storytime, because wordless books are hard to do unless you're great at them!
Another wordless book. This one was better than others I've read, like last nights What If? and last week's Bear Despair. The kids and I thought the bright primary colours did very well to keep our attention. If I had nothing new to read at story time, I would reach again for this book.
Bee & Bird is a really simple book. The pictures show a bee on a bird nose in all these different places and then the bee finally flies away at the end only to have the bird follow it and sit on the bees house. This book also leaves things up to the imagination like whether the bird and bee are friends, enemies, and why they are following each other. I liked this book and it would be fun to give wordless picture books to children and let them come up with the story and "read" it to you.
This book was a book without any words. I thought it was an alright book. I like the meaning of it and how it shows different perspectives because you don't really see bees and birds getting along or even around each other in nature. I think the kids would love the illustrations on it, but I don't really know if they could mentally visual the book and make a story line with it as the analyze each page.
Book on changing perspective, in the same spirit as Zoom or The House in the Night. These books always make me think of Royksopp's Eple music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qczr6Z...
I would love to see the images from this book on the wall of a day care center or nursery. I just wasn't that dazzled with it as a book.
Craig Frazier (Lots of Dots, the Stanley books) gives us a wordless picture book full of large shapes, bold patterns, clear colors, and a surprising amount of personality. Rather than leave his giant color fields plain and flat, often a subtle gradient will indicate contour or volume.
Wordless book that readers will have to enjoy multiple times--with perspectives changing each viewing. Bee and bird, yes---yet so much more! This title would be a nice addon for an art class or one to own to pour over in wonder.
Another clever perspective book with crisp, brilliant graphics. Useless with kids too small to talk and discuss what they are seeing.But older kids will enjoy this and art teachers would find it a great pick.