Beekeepers

When the sunshine pours like warm honey from the sky, it's time to tend Grandpa's bees. This day his granddaughter lends a hand, and she is treated to a spectacular show. The swarming bees whirl and twirl like a big buzzing cloud until they finally cluster on the limb of a tree. Then it's up to granddaughter to bring the bees down and move them into their new hive, which she does with great care. Grandpa is proud. His granddaughter proves to be "a fine keeper of bees." Linda Oatman High's lovingly told story, with sunny oil paintings by Doug Chayka, captures the special experience shared between a grandparent and child.

Linda Oatman High is the author of The Last Chimney of Christmas Eve. She also wrote Barn Savers and Winter Shoes for Shadow Horse, both illustrated by Ted Lewin, and all are published by Boyds Mills Press.

Doug Chayka illustrated Yanni Rubbish, written by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim and published by Boyds Mills Press.

A young girl helps her grandfather tend his bee hives one morning in spring.

From the author of Maize and Hound Heaven comes a lovingly told story that captures the special experience shared between a grandparent and child. On a warm and sunny day, a young girl helps her grandfather tend his bees.

Publishers Weekly

Readers will be buzzing with curiosity after turning the pages of this quietly suspenseful story of a girl who helps her grandfather keep bees and harvest their honey. Decked out in the requisite but unearthly-looking protective gear, the beekeepers head to the hives in the bee yard. When some of the bees decide to swarm, quick thinking and calm movements save the day-and the hives. High's (A Christmas Star) spare, poetic descriptions make it easy to imagine a dewy spring morning on the farm. In his picture book debut, Chayka's oil paintings, built up in broad brush strokes, are appropriately steeped in the golden hues of sunshine and honey. The gentle lighting is a key element: because the beekeepers' veils obscure most facial expressions, the artist resourcefully deploys color and composition to set the mood. Children unfamiliar with this type of farming will be fascinated by such equipment as a bee smoker and the box-like hives where the bees build their honeycombs. But most of all, youngsters will marvel at the central characters as they emerge unscathed from a swarm of creatures most people have been taught to fear. Ages 5-8. (Mar.)

Linda Oatman High is an author of books for children, teens, and adults, as well as a songwriter, journalist, playwright, and poet. She wrote A Humble Life: Plain Poems, winner of a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Honor Award, and the picture book Barn Savers, an NCTE Notable Book and a Booklist Best Book. She lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.