One summer morning
deep in the nest,
a brand-new honeybee
squirms,
pushes,
chews
through the wax cap of
her solitary cell and
into...
a teeming, trembling
flurry.
Hummmmm!

And so begins the story of Apis mellifera.

Follow the life cycle of this devoted and extraordinary worker as she cleans the hive, tends to larvae and the queen, builds wax comb, and guards the hive from invaders—before embarking on her first flight to seek nectar.

Candace Fleming's hypnotic text and Caldecott Medalist Eric Rohmann's glorious, meticulously detailed oil paintings, including a spectacular double gatefold of Apis in flight, perfectly complement each other, as they did in their award-winning picture book, Giant Squid.

From the dust jacket