Just How We Roll! Pea, Bee, and Jay--Stuck Together by Brian "Smitty" Smith

"GOOD MORNING!" LITTLE PEA SAYS.

"SHUSH!" SAYS MA. "YOU'LL WAKE THE WHOLE POD. YOU KNOW HOW CRANKY GRANDPA GETS!" 

 "TIME TO GET ROLLING," SAYS PEA.

 "NO ROLLING TOO FAR FROM OUR ROW!" SAYS MA.

But Pea just rolls his eyes at his mother's advice and goes off in search of adventures. He runs into Blueberry and Strawberry.

"ROLL WITH ME AND YOU'LL BE ROLLING FAST AND FREE!  EASY PEAS-Y!" HE BRAGS.

They dare Pea to prove his prowess by rolling beyond the farm's fence and bringing back a red leaf from a tree on the other side. But it's not as easy as Pea thinks. Rain begins to fall, he's washed into a muddy ravine and when he grabs a vine to swing up on, he bumps into a bee, who brags there are buzz-illions just like her, and then into a blue jay who says he never learned to fly and fell out of his tree. Pea can sees no way this odd pair can be any help! Then he looks up at Jay's tree.

"THE TREE!" SHOUTS PEA.

That's IT! What does he see but the tree with red leaves. All he has to do is carry back a leaf and he'll be the hero of the garden patch! But there's one piece of this problem Pea didn't perceive! How can he carry the leaf?

It seems that they all just need to do what comes naturally, in Brian "Smitty" Smith's comic story, Pea, Bee, & Jay 1: Stuck Together (Harper, 2020), done up in graphic style, features an unlikely triumvirant--Pea, who just wants to roll, Bee, who is seeking to flee her job as queen of the hive, and a blue jay who needs to flap his wings--who together find their way back to the row where Pea needs to report to his pod before he is grounded. With plenty of funny, kid-pleasing puns, kids will be rolling with laughter at this silly tale of an unlikely trio who together have all the right stuff. "Readers will 'bee' delighted by this earnest and endearing tale," says Kirkus Reviews in a starred review.

Bugged! Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen by Nancy Viau

It started last fall on our class trip to Slippery Stone Cave. I was being extremely helpful to our cave guide, and That Kid Richard said I was a science freak and had rocks in my head. But Todd Kensington stuck up for me. I decided right then that Todd would be my boyfriend one day--in a few years when I was allowed to have a boyfriend. But then Kelli invited Todd over to her house. I got so mad at Kelli.

Kelli and I don't stay mad for long. She's been my friend since kindergarten. Best friend. But since Christmas vacation, she's only been over twice. She has not been best friend material these days.

The rocks in Samantha's head have been displaced pro tem by the next science unit--insects--but her relationship with Kelli is not exactly buzzing. Kelli has started dance lessons and has been as busy as a bee with her ballet friend Ling. But, not surprisingly, at school Samantha finds a new obsession, not fractions and percentages, but bees--and on an outing to a local apiary with her grandfather, she is dismayed to learn that the owner is planning to sell out and move away. Her angry stomping around gets her in trouble with her mom, who is starting a new job and her teenaged sister Jen, thinks she's a big baby to make a fuss over a bunch of bees.

But her teacher, Miss Montemore, is sympathetic, and That Kid Richard Frey, who does have cute dimples, helps her start their class Bug Club.

But dimple-faced boys are not important now. What I need is a friend. A best friend. Someone who wants to hang out with me. And if that someone liked science, that would make the second half of fourth grade fifty-million percent better.

Samantha finds a science friend, her classmate Kat, who also loves science and is very funny besides, and Kat joins her in forming a club and heading up their campaign, Save The Bees. Before she knows it, she's Samantha Hansen, Entymologist, and President of the Bug Club, the science kids organize a demonstration, complete with Save the Bees posters and articles in the local newspaper.

The apiary is saved, with a surprising new owner and there is clearly more nature science and best friends in Samantha's future, in Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen (Schiffer Publishing, 2019). It's not as if Samantha Hansen has exactly lost her love for rocks. She's not fickle, but in this humorous sequel to Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head, (see review here) she's playing the field, that is, the field of beehives at Orchardville Farm, learning about beekeeping, and perhaps a little about juggling emotions and controlling her temper with her best friends (plural) and potential far-in-the-future boyfriends. Samantha Hansen is a delightfully lively and honest character in this forthcoming funny and down-to-earth realistic fiction book for middle readers.

What Can It Be? Bee--A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup

Dawn is breaking on a brilliant new day.
And in the meadow, poppies sway.

A bee appears, striped black and gold.
Wonder what nature is about to unfold?

The busy bee is indeed at the center of this spring poem, as shown in the die-cut cover of the book itself. The hexagonal, honeycomb-shaped cutout grows progressively smaller on each page, with the hard-working bee always the center of attention as she works her magic with each of the spring blooms.

It's a mutual rewards thing down in the meadow. Bee takes nectar, but also carries pollen to fertilize the flowers that provide the fruit and seeds for the growth cycle.

Among the orchard's apple trees,
Blossoms quiver in the breeze.

Carrying pollens from plant to place,
Bee always leaves a tiny trace.

In her spring-themed Bee: A Peek-Through Picture Book (Doubleday Books, 2016), Britta Teckentrup's attractive toy-and-movable-book comes along just in time for those spring units on beneficial insects and the life cycle of the plant in which bees play such a vital role. Teckentrup's flowing, rhyming couplets provide the actual lesson in pollination, and her lovely illustrations of the lively setting for bee's busy day, flying on to ply her trade among the apple blossoms and the daisies, keep the story moving in this book that is tailor-made for classroom readalouds and browsing. Says School Library Journal, " ... this book is well suited for an introductory look at pollinators."