unBEElievables: honeybee poems and paintings by Douglas Florian, was published way back in 2012 by Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. It’s recommended for ages 5 and up (that’s me!) My dear friend, Marcia told me about this book because she knows that I am fascinated by the little creatures that live on the earth. And honeybees are a timely topic, given the challenges they are facing in the modern world. For an interesting documentary about honeybees and their plight, check out Queen of the Sun, which includes Michael Pollan and looks at Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual view of bees.
Poems
But back to the book–it contains a series of poems about the different types of honeybees (queen bee, drone, worker bees), bee anatomy, beehives, making honey, swarming and more–ending with a poem called “Where are the bees?” Each poem is accompanied by a paragraph of factual material that fills out the description given by the poem.
And the poems are sweet as honey–and funny (like my poem?)
Here’s a sample:
Pollen on my legs and feet.
Pollen on my wings that beat.
Pollen on my cheeks and chin.
Pollen on my abdomen.
I just took a pollen shower.
I’m a fuzzy, flying flower!
Rhyming “chin” and “abdomen” just makes me feel happy inside.
And you can see Douglas Florian reading his poem about Drones below—-
Illustrations
I just love a book that tells what media the artist used to make the illustrations. And this one does. “The illustrations for the book were created with gouache paint, colored pencils, and collage on primed paper bags.” Pretty cool, right? I usually just recycle my paper bags. But he always works on paper bags. These illustrations are loose and fun, childlike and they capture the same mood of joy and wonder as the poems do. I like the combination of words, collage, drawings, and paint. It’s very fun.
About Douglas Florian
He has written and illustrated 6 books for Simon and Schuster, including this one. And he’s written and illustrated a whole bunch more–I counted 20. He is also a painter.
Other titles include “How to Draw a Dragon,” and “Dinothesauraus,” “Laugheteria,” and “Poetrees.”
His paintings are also fun and colorful and free. He’s been showing his work in galleries since 1985, also known as a really long time! And you can check out his blog, Florian cafe, where he describes himself as painter, poet, and pooh-bah. Well, really, what more do you need to know?
Here is an affiliate link to unBEElievables. If you buy through this link, I get a little $, but it costs you exactly the same!
