Why am I passionate about this?

I have long been fascinated by bees. I am a retired Middle School teacher (I taught mathematics, science, and creative writing in an inner-city school district) and am a volunteer community scientist with a special interest in pollinators. I love nothing more than being outdoors, meandering through empty lots, local parks, and my own backyard observing bees of all species. As a storyteller, I am fascinated by how honeybees weave through different cultures’ myths and how they are seen as a source of mystical and transformative power. Honeybees ignite my imagination and bring together my love of science and my concern for threats to our shared environment.


I wrote

The Bee Maker

By Mobi Warren,

Book cover of The Bee Maker

What is my book about?

In 2036, honeybees are nearly extinct. Thirteen-year-old Melissa has never tasted a strawberry because the world's crops are disappearing. Her…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Hour of the Bees

Mobi Warren Why did I love this book?

Honeybees hold a mysterious power in this beautifully written novel about a girl’s struggle to connect with both her cultural roots and her grandfather with dementia during a summer in the New Mexico desert. As a former Middle School teacher, I loved how perfectly Eagar captured Carolina’s struggles with family and friends. I was enchanted by Grandpa’s Serge’s tale about a tree once kept alive by bees, and couldn’t take my eyes off the page as story strands merged in a powerful and suspense-filled climax. The image of bees each bringing a mouthful of water to replenish a drought-erased lake is one of my all-time favorite images in literature. 

By Lindsay Eagar,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Hour of the Bees as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

A beautifully written debut novel that weaves together magic and reality, about a girl's relationship with her mentally ill grandfather.

This powerful debut novel delicately blurs the line between truth and fiction as Carol unravels the fantastical stories of her mentally ill grandfather. When she and her family move to his deserted ranch in order to transfer him to a care home, Carol struggles to cope with the suffocating heat and the effects of her grandfather's dementia. Bees seem to be following her around, but the drought means this is impossible. She must be imagining things. Yet when her grandfather…


Book cover of Honeybee: Poems & Short Prose

Mobi Warren Why did I love this book?

In this collection of poems and short prose pieces, Young People’s Poet Laureate (2019-21) Naomi Shihab Nye, takes inspiration from honeybees to encourage us to refresh our spirits by honing our attention and treating others with kindness. While many of the poems concern the nature and wonder of bees and the threats they face, other pieces address subjects as diverse as crickets, egrets, kiwi cake. The poet does not shy away from the heftier subjects of war and injustice because she knows young people are hungry to discuss those things, too. This is a perfect collection to draw from to inspire students in a writing class. I know because I have used her poems in that way. Some of my favorite poems are in this collection.

By Naomi Shihab Nye,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Honeybee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

"Nye's sheer joy in communicating, creativity, and caring shine through."-Kirkus Reviews

A moving and celebratory poetry collection from Young People's Poet Laureate and National Book Award Finalist Naomi Shihab Nye. This resonant volume explores the similarities we share with the people around us-family, friends, and complete strangers.

Honey. Beeswax. Pollinate. Hive. Colony. Work. Dance. Communicate. Industrious. Buzz. Sting. Cooperate.

Where would we be without honeybees? Where would we be without one another?

In eighty-two poems and paragraphs (including the renowned Gate A-4), Naomi Shihab Nye alights on the essentials of our time-our loved ones, our dense air, our wars, our…


Book cover of Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera

Mobi Warren Why did I love this book?

Who says picture books are only for young children?  I taught all levels, K-12, and often used picture books to grab and hold the attention of my Middle and High School students. If this award-winning book had been published when I was still teaching, I would have read it to every math and science class I taught. This is a visually stunning book with text that is both poetic and informative. The factual behaviors and life cycle of an individual honeybee are filled with as much wonder as more imaginative tales. I kid you not, I cried on the last pages of this book, I was so moved by the honeybee’s life journey. 

By Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Honeybee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner
 
Take to the sky with Apis, one honeybee, as she embarks on her journey through life!

An Orbis Pictus Honor Book
Selected for the Texas Bluebonnnet Master List
Finalist for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books

A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet!

Apis builds wax comb to store honey, and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage.…


Book cover of Zinnia and the Bees

Mobi Warren Why did I love this book?

This is a delightfully wacky book with endearing characters. Zinnia is having a bad hair day, literally. A hive of bees takes up residence in the wild and curly mane of her hair to add to her troubles—a missing brother and a mother who doesn’t seem to care. I fell in love with this book on the first page when I learned that Zinnia was about to yarn bomb a statue of her school mascot. (I’m a knitter and have fancied taking up yarn bombing myself.) Quickly-paced chapters alternate between Zinnia as narrator and the bees discussing their own perilous situation. Told with both humor and empathy, this is a book where you can’t turn the pages fast enough in order to find out how things resolve.

By Danielle Davis, Laura K. Horton (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Zinnia and the Bees as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The hive of honeybees living in Zinnia's hair is actually the least of her problems. Her best friend, who also happens to be her brother, has left home with no explanation. And the one thing that makes her happy and keeps her sane knitting has just got her detention. She's never felt more alone. But the bees have a lot to say about it starting with finding her brother.


Book cover of Bees: A Honeyed History

Mobi Warren Why did I love this book?

In my experience, Middle School youth can’t get enough of richly illustrated books that also serve as an encyclopedic compendium of fascinating facts. Want to know about bee anatomy? Hive-building? How bees communicate? Bees In mythology? Robotic bees? Beekeeping throughout history and across cultures? Current threats to bees? How to treat a bee sting? Look no further. But I warn you, it may be hard to pry this book from a young person’s hands once they start reading it. I had a hard time putting it down myself and I learned a lot of new facts. Bonus: this book’s large format lends itself to being held and pored over by two people at a time—cooperative learning at its best. 

By Piotr Socha,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Bees as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One part science, one part cultural history, and countless parts fascination, Bees celebrates the important role that these intriguing insects have played in our ecosystem throughout the ages. From Athena to Alexander the Great and from Egypt to Ethiopia, Bees explores different methods of beekeeping and uncovers the debt that humans owe this vital species. With beautifully accessible illustrations depicting everything from bee anatomy to the essentials of honey making, readers will be captivated by the endless wonders of this seemingly small speck of the animal kingdom.


Explore my book 😀

The Bee Maker

By Mobi Warren,

Book cover of The Bee Maker

What is my book about?

In 2036, honeybees are nearly extinct. Thirteen-year-old Melissa has never tasted a strawberry because the world's crops are disappearing. Her absence seizures earn her the hated nickname statue girl at school and her mother changes custody arrangements, leaving her with a reluctant father. To cope, Melissa folds origami. She decides to fold a thousand honeybees as a prayer for bees and a way to connect with her father, a honeybee scientist.

Melissa’s seizures and origami magically combine to open a portal to ancient Crete where she encounters a disabled boy who communicates with honeybees. He is blamed for a deadly fever and condemned to die. His sister can ransom his life but only if she wins an impossible race. Can Melissa save both the bees and the boy?

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Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

Book cover of Girl of Light

Elana Gomel Author Of Nine Levels

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Elana's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A girl of Light in a world of darkness.

In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…

Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

What is this book about?

A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.

Girl of Light is a dark fantasy with a Slavic…


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