Starred Review In a world where bees are no more aders won't know if this is the future, an alternate time line, or a parallel universe ere are the farm folk, Pests and Bees, and the wealthy city folk who live far off and lounge around in luxury, known as the Urbs. Peony wants more than anything to live on her grandfather's farm and be a Bee, a worker who manually pollinates flowers and fruits to keep society running, but when her volatile Ma shows up and moves her to the big city, she must decide where d who e wants her family to be. Imported from Australia, MacDibble's award-winning debut children's novel is a refreshing breath of organic, floral-scented air. She has created a recognizable, unforgettable voice in Peony, who is a vibrant personality, speaking like a child-friendly version of Anthony Burgess' Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Readers will root for her and her friends throughout their challenges and adventures, from surviving in the city to being promoted on the farm.

In near-future Australia, "bee" is both a noun and a verb.Before the famines that occurred 30 years ago, crops were pollinated by actual bees, but wanton pesticide use means that now the job must be done by children who are light and quick enough to hand-pollinate the orchards that produce the fruit that's taken to the city. Peony, the novel's charismatic 9-year-old narrator, wants nothing more than to bee, but Foreman doesn't pick her. That's bad enough, but even worse is when Ma comes from the city where she works and takes Peony away from Gramps and her beloved sister. In the city, Peony must wear shoes and wait on the Pasquales, a family of three that lives in comfort Peony can't fathom. MacDibble effectively creates a not-quite-post-apocalyptic world of tremendous class contrasts, with farmworkers who live in dire poverty and frightening, teeming crowds of "raggy people" in the city; the elites live in seeming oblivion. But once Peony gets to the city, the plot devolves into a Secret Garden-esque arc in which Peony combines Mary Lennox's abrasive impulsivity and Dickon's simple country wisdom as she befriends and nurtures the Pasquales' imperious daughter, who, Colin-like, is hostage to her own fears. Peony seeks not revolution but a return to the orchard, her enlightenment an entirely personal one. Racial distinctions are effectively invisible, implying a white default.A vivid futuristic setting enfolds a fundamentally nostalgic plot. (Post-apocalyptic adventure. 9-13)