Inspire Reading Early: The King of Bees by Lester L. Laminack

The King of Bees is written by Lester L. Laminack and illustrated by Jim Lamarche. This inspiring story is about a young boy named Henry who lives on a farm with his Aunt Lilla in South Carolina. He helps his aunt on the farm, but the one thing is can't wait to do is help her with the bees. Aunt Lilla lets Henry carry the smoker that is used to calm the bees, but he has to watch her from a distance. He does not have a protection suit like she does. She tells him that he has to be a little older to handle the bees.

One day, Aunt Lilla notices that the bees are getting ready to swarm which means that they are going to get a new queen. The old one will leave with a few sisters and try to find another place to live. She decides that she needs to quickly set up another box somewhere close by. Henry gets excited and wants to help the bees find the new box. He quickly put on his aunt's bee protection suit, but knocks over a bottle of bee drops. Henry still puts on the suit.

He dances and shows the bees where the new box is placed. He got tired and takes off the suit to rest. The bees followed him, but he did not notice until he hears the buzzing. The bees lay on top of him (on the suit). Aunt Lilla fetches the smoker, and carefully lists the suit. Henry believes that the bees think of him as their king bee.

Many children are afraid of bees. I love bees and know how much they do for us, but even I sometimes think, "Ahhh! It's going to sting me!" Once you get stung by a bee, you have that worry. I think that children will like hearing a story about a young boy who WANTS to work with bees. They do so much for us, and we need them. Bees don't get the credit that they deserve. I believe that our jobs as adults is to teach children at a young age that bees are helpful. Yes, they can sting, but there is usually a reason. They may be scared and just protecting themselves.

In the classroom, I like to do a small unit on bees. I find different books (nonfiction and fiction) to read to my students. I also like to go through what bees to do help us, and how we can help bees. I also like to go through the life cycle of a bee (just like we do with butterflies).

There's a really great video about bees here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta154f5Rp5Y

There's a lot of good information on bees and young students really enjoy watching it.

The author also lists a website in the back of the book if you would like to learn more about bees. If you would like to visit, click here:
http://peachtree-online.com/resources/the-king-of-bees/

Bee Activities