Author: Christopher Cheng,
Illustrated by: Danny Snell
Published by: CSIRO Publishing
2023, Hardback and ebook
$25 Buy: https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7957
Review by Lyn Thomson
This book aims to tell young children the story of pollination in a language that they can comprehend. It tells the story through a family’s eyes; it is a nice touch using the grandparents as children love hearing their stories. Many children gain their love of nature from grandparents who spend time explaining new concepts to their receptive minds.
The illustrations are nicely done using European honey bees as their choice of bee. The drawings are simple and echo the words in the story.
While the story does explain pollination, it is a cross between a fact and story book. It doesn’t quite achieve a true factual science story, yet on the other hand it is not quite whimsical enough to stand alone as a children’s story book. When teaching children, it is recommended to teach them the correct definitions from the start, so as not to confuse them when they encounter the true definition. For example, “loaded yellow legs” rather than pollen baskets.
It tells the story rather than urging the children to be part of Inquiry learning, which requires students to learn through doing and investigating and questioning. This method is often used today with students from Kindergarten -Year12. The book does touch on this in the last two pages when the child is encouraged to investigate what visits his flowers.
The pollination facts at the back of the book are a good example of a more factual, scientific story. Even young children could comprehend this.
The book is targeted at 5 to 9 year olds, and would work well with that age group. The teacher’s notes are a good add-on and explore the facts beyond the story.
Review by Lyn Thomson