Kaia and the Bees by Angela Dominguez, Maribeth Boelts
ISBN: 1536201057
Genres: Animals, Realistic Fiction
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

Kaia is super brave, but when it comes to bees, she’s terrified. Her father is a beekeeper, and he always offers to let her help, but she’s too scared. After some friends laugh at her for being afraid of bees, she decides to visit her dad’s rooftop beehives. She sees the bees, they find the queen, she holds a frame covered with thousands of bees, and she helps refill their water. When she takes off her glove, she gets stung by a bee. She’s still afraid of the bees, but she helps extract honey, and she decides maybe she’ll help her dad again sometime soon.

The image on the cover of this book clearly conveys that Kaia is afraid of the bees. I was really hoping she’d work through her fear a little better than she did in this book. By the end, she was considering helping her father again, but she still seemed very afraid. It is a good book in that it recognizes the real fear that some kids have about bees, but it missed the mark on helping them process that fear. The illustrations are colorful and help bring the story and Kaia’s emotions to life. Kaia’s family is biracial, and it is refreshing to see People of Color keeping bees in a kid’s book. I also appreciated the nod to rooftop beekeeping as it is more common in cities than most people realize. Recommended for readers 3 and up.

Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME