The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery

Markle, S. (2014). The case of the vanishing honeybees: A scientific mystery. Minneapolis, M N: Millbrook Press.

The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery is a children’s book written by Sandra Markle. Susan Markle has written more than 200 nonfiction children’s books. She was an elementary and middle school science teacher before becoming a fulltime writer. Her work has been featured on children books that are served at Chick-fil-a!

This book is about how honeybees are mysteriously vanishing all over the world and how this could put our food supply in jeopardy. There are many different things that could be causing the bees to disappear. Some probable causes are the changes in habitat, overworking the bees, wireless cell phone interference, mites, deadly fungus, or even pesticides. Bees are important because they help with pollination and they make honey.

The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees is a nonfiction picture book. It is very informative. There are many facts that include the fact that we would not have foods that come from plants, the lifecycle of bees, the jobs of bees, where the bees live, and probable causes of the disappearance of bees. The pictures are photographs of real bees. This book is considered to be a non-fiction book because the whole book is information and factual. According to Galda, the term nonfiction describes books of information and fact about any topic. I would consider the quality of this book to be high because “the author indicates interrelationships between facts and theories (Galda). Also, because of the accuracy, design and style.

I liked The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees because of the photographs. I believe that the photography enhanced the text in a positive way. I enjoyed reading this book because it was written in a way that keeps your interest in learning about why the bees are disappearing. It was written by a science teacher and you can tell.

Discussion Questions:

• What is pollination?
• What types of foods do honeybees help us grow?
•  What are the different jobs that bees have?
• Why do you think the bees are disappearing?
•  Does reading this book change your mind about killing bees when you see them in your yard?

Activities:

•  For older grades, have students research about honeybees. Have them complete a research project and have them predict a reason for why the bees are vanishing.
• For younger grades, have the students complete a worksheet by having them paste different parts of the life cycle of bees in order on the worksheet.

Other books by this author:

• What If You Had Animal Teeth?
• What If You Had Animal Hair?
•  The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frog
• What If You Had Animal Ears?
•   Little Lost Bat
• A Mother’s Journey