Ever thought about hosting bees in your hair? Neither had 12-year-old Zinnia, but a quick look beneath her hood shows that's exactly what she's dealing with. Distraught over her older brother's disappearance, she goes for ice cream and drips the messy treat into her hair. Meanwhile, a colony of bees makes a bid for freedom when the truck hauling its hive wrecks, and the bees follow the sweet scent of ice cream right into Zinnia's curls. Adding a dollop of magic realism, Davis alternates between Zinnia's story and the bees' predicament, both atop their disappointingly pollen-free host and as a species struggling in the world at large. Readers will empathize with Zinnia as she wonders about her missing brother, deals with her mother, and renews fractured friendships. As they follow the bees' activities, they'll learn apian facts and gain insight into what is happening to bees in the U.S. This fascinating and unusual look at family, friendships, and insects is a good match for Robin Stevenson's The Summer We Saved the Bees (2015).

Behind a strange fantasy premise is a reasonable coming-of-age story. When Zinnia's older brother suddenly leaves, she's left with only her disapproving dentist mother--and a honeybee hive in her hair. It takes a new friend to help her reconnect with her mom and find a creative solution to the bee problem. Occasional chapters from the bees' group perspective distract from Zinnia's more engaging narrative.

Zinnia's convinced nothing could be worse than her beloved older brother's sudden, unexplained departure, which leaves her alone with their overbearing dentist mother—till a colony of honeybees takes up residence in her hair.Zinnia responds by wearing a hoodie at all times and staying in her room to knit whenever possible. On a rare outing she meets unflappable Birch, the neighbor's visiting nephew, who is the only person to notice Zinnia's bees. Together they search for Adam and try to figure out how to divest Zinnia's hair of her unwanted tenants. Davis' debut demands that readers check their disbelief at the door. In addition to the bees, she draws secondary characters with broad brushes, especially do-gooder Dr. Flossdrop, who seems determined to alienate her entire family. But she manages to keep it together, embedding readers in Zinnia's believable, often funny perspective with occasional cutaways to the bees, who narrate their side of the misadventure in a wry collective voice that combines snippets of bee biology with fancy (they break dance to "combat despair"). Bee cognoscenti will scoff at the sheer ridiculousness of the premise, but its extreme silliness works its own magic to mitigate this and other hard-to-believe moments, such as the ease with which the rift between Zinnia and her former BFFs seems to be healed. Zinnia, her family, and Birch are evidently white. Horton's illustrations not seen. Not flawless but decidedly offbeat and emotionally true. (Fabulism. 9-12)

Gr 4-7They had trusted bee 641, had thought she would find them a new home when they escaped from their hive to become wild and free. They did not plan on living their days out in the curly mess of hair on this human's head, but here they were. Meanwhile, said human, Zinnia, hadn't anticipated spending the summer wearing a hoodie to cover a buzzing mess of bees. In fact, she is not having the summer she expected at all. Her yarn bomb on the last day of school had, well, bombed, and she came home to find that her older brother and most important person in her life, Adam, had left without an explanation. Then Birch, the odd nephew of Zinnia's neighbor, comes to stay for the summer. Zinnia starts to understand what friendship and family really mean and in the process loses and gains some things (the bees, friends). Alternating between Zinnia's and the bees' perspective, this novel forces readers to suspend disbelief, though it does not quite verge into magical realism. Despite the outlandish premise, Davis does an excellent job crafting human characters who are varied in their emotions and grow in awareness. The solution to Zinnia's problems is believable and clever yet still leaves room for change. VERDICT A good fit for a larger collection looking for unusual books on friendship and growing up.Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA