Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Good Bee
BY Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum

Michael O’Mara
4 April 2019/ ISBN 9781789290837
Non Fiction/Environment

Reviewed by Rachel Hyde

AMAZON UK

A world without bees would be totally different to the one we are familiar with. The lack of bees would have a huge impact on the food we eat and, indeed. on our whole way of life and that of all other living things. We need to protect them, but as this book says, “You can’t save what you don’t love And you can’t love what you don’t know.” So getting to know bees is a good place to start.

This is a lovely book that will look great on your bookshelves, and its understated elegance will make your coffee table look like the property of a person of taste and intelligence. From its gold foil printing to James Nunn’s black and white drawings inside, this is the 21st century’s answer to those gorgeous nature books of the 19th century. If a whole book about bees sounds a bit daunting, rest assured that the experts who wrote it have managed to make it readable and easy to understand It would be suitable for older children as well as adults, being a book written in simple language which breaks down the information into digestible parts.

There are four chapters: a look at bees and how they operate; their involvement with us; the threats facing them today; and how we can help them. Discover how many different species of bee there are and how they make nests, pollinate our plants and how each group of bees differs in appearance and what they do. Most of the examples are found in the UK, making this an ideal book for anybody with a garden.

In the chapter about bees and us there are some recipes, a look at honey and bee keeping and how bees fare in our world. This leads us into looking at the threats bees face and finally into how we can help them. Find out which flowers to plant, how to make homes for bees and how to garden with them in mind. At the back is a helpful index, plus a bibliography if you wish to delve deeper into the world of bees. If you can bear to part with it, this would make a wonderful gift, perhaps with a packet of wild flower seeds. It won’t be leaving my keeper shelf though…

UK Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in The Bead Magazine, Making Jewellery and www.craftsuprint.com/rachel-a-hyde/
Reviewed 2019
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