Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane

Smithsonian's Backyard

by Laura Gates Galvin

In a backyard in southern New England, Bumblebee emerges from her winter hibernation and soon her nest is a flurry of activity. Follow Bumblebee and her young as they collect nectar while buzzing around a New England backyard. Reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution for accuracy, Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane is a fun and informative story with beautifully detailed illustrations.Watch your children have a blast reading and learning about the animals that live in an American backyard!



Book
- An informative storyline and colorful illustrations
- 32 pages
- Appropriate for ages 3-9
- Mini book 5 7/8 x 4 3/4 inches

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Animals, Nature, Childrens, 1st Grade

31 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jasmine from How Useful It Is · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! My kids loves it. The pictures are beautiful and the story is interesting. So great to learn about bumblebee without getting sleepy!

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do like these little books! They do a great job teaching basic facts about different animals. This time it's the bumblebee, and I'm glad - they're lovely, and I always enjoy seeing them flying round the garden. The ones I've seen lately have been particularly big and fat, so I trust they're feeding well. It's a shame I can't look inside their nests; I'd love to see the bumblebees assigned to air circulation flapping away on the nest ceiling.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice bee book. I could almost here the buzz!🐝 It reminded me of my bumblebee, Jasper. 🐝

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great living science book.

[Zahava Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane is a picture book about 30 pages long with one or two small paragraphs on each page. The story of the book revolves around one queen bumblebee and follows her throughout an entire cycle of her life. It starts out with spring beginning, the bumblebee coming out a hibernation, and beautiful imagery of the plants blooming, which is accompanied by illustrations that seem like a mix of bright and vivid water color and acrylic. Throughout the book, the bumblebee goes through all the processes of nesting, collecting nectar, creating honey, laying eggs, collecting pollen for her larvae, watching the larvae hatch and develop, along with creating a colony and potential new colonies for the seasons to come. The vocabulary in the book is full of new words about bees that most students would not know, such as "cocoon," "hibernation," larva," "nectar," and "pollen." All of these are in a very short glossary in the book, adding an extra educational element to the story. Each illustration is a double page spread with vivid colors and unique detail of the bumblebees and their habitat, which adds an extra level of insight to what the life a bumblebee looks like.
This book is quite diverse in it's potential use. It would be an excellent book to use during a science section about insects, animal reproduction, changes to various parts of nature caused by seasonal changes. But beyond the typical reasoning behind the book, there are many other casual uses for it. A perfect event-based use for this book in the classroom would be if a student got stung by a bee. It would be an interesting classroom experience to read it out loud so the students get a better understanding of the life of a bumblebee. Overall, this book is very enjoyable because it is informative but in a personal story way.

[Jaylyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal Reaction- An intellectual story on how bumble bee's work together and how the seasons effect them. Not too much of a theme or motif but a good learning experience about bee's.

Purposes:

This story would be good for 1st-2nd graders. The bumblebee's reproduce and go through the seasons helping each other and working together. The vocabulary used is helpful for understanding how the bumble bee's work. Understanding that honey comes from bees and beehives are where they live and how the mother is called Queen Bee. The illustrations give a good look into how bee's work without the scary thought of being up close to them in real life. Illustrations really emphasize the color and the closeness bee's are to each other. This would be a good lesson during the Spring when students aren't too aware of how bee's work and how they can be dangerous but also very important to our environment. You could also do something with honey in the lesson plan to get students more involved.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal reaction: I enjoyed this book because it is interesting and takes an inside look at what bumblebees do in the spring.

It presents a lot of information without going overboard with vocabulary and difficult concepts. This would be a great book to read to children learning about spring or bumblebees. I especially liked the glossary in the back with more elaboration on words like "cocoon", "hibernation", "larva", "nectar", and "pollen". The illustrations and text complement each other well. There is a good balance between the two.