Dancing with Bees

August 1, 2019

Stunned to realize she knows more about the French Revolution than the natural world around her, Howard resolves to rectify the situation by specializing in the study of bees. In her home garden, at her allotment, and in different wild areas of Great Britain, including the Outer Hebrides, the author observes the mating, nesting, and foraging behaviors of her favorites--bumblebees and solitary bees. She expands on her knowledge by using identification guides, reading books and scientific papers, and consulting bee experts, sharing here her observations about their lives, ecology, and the plants that attract them in this fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of nature in Great Britain. Interwoven throughout is information about Howard's life, plants, other pollinators, and birds, as Howard expertly advocates for bees. VERDICT This satisfying memoir of a woman's reawakening to the importance of nature in her life will appeal to fans of natural history memoirs, bees, the natural world, or ecology, as well as those who enjoyed Dave Goulson's A Sting in the Tale and Meredith May's The Honey Bus.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A British naturalist offers crisp essays on her relationship with bees. In her debut book, Howard, a devoted bee advocate, pens a lengthy, knowledgeable, and occasionally poetic tribute to honeybees, bumblebees, and other buzzy creatures. She pays attention to the much-publicized, recent dearth of bees but also focuses much of her attention on bees' role in nature--to pollinate flowers, plants, and trees. As she notes, the author's husband is a professional beekeeper, but this book is a personal journey about Howard falling in love with bees while in her 40s. The narrative is frequently eye-opening and profound, marked by the author's dry wit and graceful writing. "As my interest in bees has grown," she writes, "so has my awareness of everything that surrounds them or connects them to the web of life they exist within. I feel as though I have embarked on a never-ending journey, a journey that spirals continuously outwards, gathering momentum and taking on a life of its own as it sweeps up all the wondrous, wild things that fly, swim, walk, or crawl in its wake....If I could draw the route of my journey, I suspect it might look a little like a spider's web, dotted here and there with treasures." Howard also provides a nice balance between the very real science of studying bees and their function in nature and her cleareyed and eloquent observations about the natural world. Because of that balance, what might have sounded like a dry lecture turns into something far more interesting. Whether she's explaining how different bee species are classified, describing her mother's deteriorating health (and eventual death), or simply ruminating on the beauty around her, Howard creates a text that is compelling and worth your time even if you're not a fellow bee advocate. An eloquent love letter to bees.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

Starred review from August 1, 2019
There are about 20,000 different bee species on our planet. In naturalist and bee advocate Strawbridge Howard's informative and entertaining book, we learn that honeybees are not the only kind of bees pollinating flowers and trees. There are also several varieties of solitary bees making homes for their offspring in the ground, spaces between stone and wood, even in empty snail shells. Throughout this engaging, richly descriptive tale of natural discovery, the reader feels as if she is learning alongside the author. In chapters titled Seeking the Great Yellow Bumblebee, Strawbridge Howard takes readers on a magical mystery tour to the remaining vastness of the Caledonian Forest of Scotland, an ancient old-growth stand mostly of Scots pine. As she searches for bees, she notes that wild boar, Eurasian lynx, brown bears, and even gray wolves once roamed beneath the shadows of these trees. When the distinguished great yellow bumblebee is eventually spotted, we share the author's delight. Towards the end of this winsome book she writes, I have been blessed with the ability to see miracles in everything around me. The reader will feel the same.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)