This picture book from the Jump into Science series presents the honeybee. Besides trying to allay children's fears of bees, it provides fascinating details about life inside the hive, where female bees develop from egg to larva to pupa to worker bee. At various stages in their adult lives, the workers have specific jobs, such as nurse bee, house bee, guard bee, and forager. As she clearly describes how the workers perform their tasks at different stages, Heiligman also communicates a great deal of interesting information about species. Golembe's naive gouache paintings, sometimes surrounded by decorative borders, illustrate the text clearly and colorfully.

This well-written, detailed description of the honeybee is given added appeal by the colorful, full-page gouache illustrations of a girl observing bees and drawing diagrams of them. The six-week-long life of the worker bee is depicted, from the egg through a series of working stages to her final task of collecting nectar. An activity ("Dance like a Honeybee") is appended.

K-Gr 3-Young readers will be awed by the amount of information packed into this brief book. The bold, gouache illustrations reinforce the hard work and myriad tasks described. From the opening pages, bees are shown on the move, gathering nectar, feeding larvae, maturing, cleaning and polishing cells, making wax, taking care of the queen, unloading nectar, and guarding the hives. Like the bees, readers jump from one concept to another and may become confused by the changing roles and stages, not realizing that a worker bee and a forager bee are the same. There is also some confusion between the diagrams and the text. The text refers to a bee's tongue whereas the diagram shows only a proboscis. Heiligman also states that bees use every part of their body to do their work but no mention is made of the role of the thorax, forelegs, or compound eye. Nonetheless, readers will learn how bees communicate, the role of royal jelly, and just how hardworking honeybees really are. An attractive addition.-Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Mt. St. Alban, Washington, DC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.