C.K. Advisory Board Member Suguna Narayan

Thora is a worker bee. Her life is meant to be spent working. Her duty is to always think of the good of the hive. She must willingly sacrifice her life for the good of the hive. The old queen has left the hive, and a new queen must be found. Thora's life is supposed to be one endless task after another. She is not supposed to dream or hope. The big, lazy drones all want to the first to mate with the new queen. Amidst all of these problems, Thora finds her friends: Belle, a worker bee; Alfred, a rebel drone and a misunderstood poet; and Mo, a drone who questions everything. Mo wants to change the lives of the bees. He wants the drones to do their fair share of work too, and he wants to make peace with other insects who live around the hive. But all of the other bees laugh at him. Finally, one day, the worker bees decide to make the drones leave the hive. Belle is involved in a fight with the wasps, whom Mo tried to make peace with.

Will Thora lose her drone friends? Will she ever learn how to hope and dream? Will she learn the true meaning of idleness? Read this book to find out. I like this book because it is thoughtful, shows deep insight, and also mirrors our society in every way. What I didn't like about this book was that it was kind of difficult to understand since I'm not a bee expert. I had to read some parts two or three times to grasp the meaning. I would recommend this book to kids in grades 3-8. It is somewhat confusing and difficult to understand. It is advanced reading for 3rd graders, but they will still enjoy it. Some similar books that I would recommend are Watership Down by Richard Adams and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Enjoy reading! (June, 2001)