It Starts with a Bee; Aimee Gallagher, illustrated by Jennie Webber

The garden is not the only thing slowly awakening from its winter slumber. In the hive, a colony of bees can sense the changing seasons and soon it will be time to go to work. Spring is calling, sweets scents and bright colours await. There is nectar to drink, pollen to spread and dances to do. It won’t be long until the garden is blooming once again thanks to the busy little bees…

Bees are bee-rilliant and It Starts With a Bee is a bee-autiful celebration of the importance of a sometimes misunderstood insect and how both the natural and human worlds are dependent on the work that they do. Written as a non-fiction poem, children will learn that bees, quite possibly the hardest working insect, are vital in pollinating flowers and plants. ‘Without pollinators like bees, flowers could not produce fruit or distribute seeds so that new plants can grow.’ Just remember the next time that you bite into a juicy piece of fruit or a delicious vegetable that it may well have started with a bee.

​Through the most lyrical of rhyming text and featuring gorgeous artwork, readers are invited to join a bee and its colony through the seasons as they create a wild wonderland of plants and flowers. And it’s not just bees that love hanging out and tending to this nature paradise. As flowers and plants spring into life, all manner of insects, bugs, birds and animals swoop, flutter, scuttle, sneak and slide their way into the garden. Everyone is welcome and you are too!

Featuring stylish golden endpapers that are adorned with bees, an absolutely gorgeous fold-out spread of a vegetable garden in full bloom, and educational content about different types of bees and an explanation of the process of pollination, It Starts With a Bee is a wonderful celebration of nature, promotes a love for and a curiosity of the natural world and will get everyone buzzing about bees.

With huge thanks to Quarto and Allen & Unwin for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

Recommended for 4+.