7 best children’s books about bees: What we’re reading

When I first introduced the idea of beekeeping to my kids, Kiwi put on her grouchiest frowny face. “Me no like bees,” she said. “Bees sting me!” I tried to explain to her that honeybees are, in fact, mostly docile and that it’s wasps and hornets that aggressively sting, but the distinction was lost on my toddler. Yet I was determined to get the whole family on board with backyard beekeeping—and these wonderful children’s books about bees helped us get there!

We’ve had these children’s books about bees in our rotation for about a month now, and the girls have gone from going “eek!” whenever anyone said “bee” to asking to read these, playing bees (complete with waggle dances!) and asking to make our own mason bee houses.

With beekeeping season upon us—and with us about to set up our brand-new beehive—the timing for their enthusiasm about pollinators couldn’t be better.

Whether you’re interested in family beekeeping or you just want your kids to learn about these crucial pollinators, these children’s books about bees are a wonderful starting point!

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Our favorite children’s books about bees

Bee & Me, by Alison Jay. This wordless children’s book about bees starts out with a scenario most kids experience: A bee flies through an open window, and a girl is terrified. She goes to swat it—but instead, she takes care of it. The girl and the bee become friends, and as the bee grows, they go on adventures together. Eventually, the bee becomes homesick and returns to the wild, but not before the girl has come to understand and love her pollinator friend. Together, they end up transforming the town—making it more bee-friendly than ever. At the end of the book, suggestions on how young readers can befriend bees give you and your kids a starting point to help these beleaguered bees.

Buzz, Bee! by Jennifer Szymanski. This pre-reader book, published by National Geographic Kids, has super-simple sentences and concepts to convey the basics about bees. Straightforward pages lay out each stage of a honeybee’s life, from collecting pollen and drinking nectar to storing honey and even doing the “waggle dance,” bee communication to tell others in the hive where to find flowers! The best part of this children’s book about bees, though, is the photography: Macro images of bees exquisitely show these insects in fine detail. That way, kids can really see what pollen looks like, imagine what the hairs on a honeybee might feel like and even witness how a honeybee’s tongue slurps up nectar.

Bees, by Laura Marsh. “When some people see bees, they run. Others might not notice the bess. But let’s stop and take a closer look.” The invitation is welcoming, and the book delivers on this promise—both literally and figuratively. Photos from the National Geographic Society fill this children’s book about bees, and the information and language in it will satisfy early readers ready to dive in. The book’s text, factoids, vocabulary and even quizzes and jokes make it easy for readers to jump into learning about these fascinating creatures.

Bees: A Honeyed History, by Piotr Socha. Inquisitive kids with an appetite for detail will love this beautifully illustrated book that teaches kids (and surely you) about bees, from the very beginning (i.e. dinosaur times!). Each oversized page dives deep into a honeybee-related topic, from beekeeping equipment to how honey relates to Greek mythology and from how bees make honey to the different beekeeping traditions in Cameroon and Southeast Asia. This children’s book about bees is packed with enough information for your kids to impress everyone at school—and for you to drop in some honeybee trivia around the water cooler.

Why do we need bees? This lift-the-flap book from Usborne teaches kids a ton about bees and answers common questions children have. The illustrations are super-friendly, making bees—an insect kids tend to be afraid of—seem approachable and cute, not scary. Each spread in the book addresses a different question word (what, how, why, etc.) and poses a series of questions with answers under the flaps. I like that this children’s book about bees includes messages about ecology—why we need bees, and why bees need our help. My kids ask to read this book again and again, partly because they can’t resist taking turns lifting the flaps and discovering “hidden” details.

The Life and Times of the Honeybee, by Charles Micucci. This children’s book about bees is dense and isn’t the kind of book most young readers will sit down to read end-to-end. But its incredibly detailed pages are wonderful to look at—and learn from—a few at a time. My girls and I especially liked the “buzz notes” on some of the pages, which offer honeybee factoids. (Did you know, for example, that a bee may visit 600 flowers before returning to the hive, and that bees collect nectar from more than a million flowers in order to make a pound of honey?) I found myself reading this book after the girls had gone to bed to educate myself—I actually found it just as informative, and much more easily digested, than books on beekeeping for adults!

The Bee Book. This is more of a reference book than a picture book, but curious readers and their parents can learn just about everything they wonder about bees. From delving into the different species (including honeybees, of course, but also solitary bees like mason bees) and attracting pollinators to how to raise bees and harvest their honey and wax, this book is bursting with fascinating info. The book uses a combination of illustrations, full-color photos (including a bunch of close-ups!) and infographics to explore the biology, chemistry and just plain wonder of bees. Although my kids looked at just a few pages at a time, I read it cover to cover!