Kingfisher Readers: Busy as a Bee. Level 1 product reviews

I have quite a reluctant reader in my 5 year old. She will read at school but prefers not to. She has a great imagination but would love to tell all her stories verbally, rather than take the time to write or read. So I'm always looking for things that we can do at home to help encourage her to read, and to write. She has quite the scientist's mind, so anything to do with how things work or following biology of insects or animals goes down a treat. That's why I was so excited to win this book.

My daughter has a real thing for insects and I knew that a book about bees would be very welcome on her bookshelf. We sat down to read it the other night. I tried to get her to read the pages herself with some prompting from me. I also tried to help her sound out the words she didn't know. She was having none of it. She really wanted the book and was happy to look at the pictures and talk through what was happening. But the actual reading was like pulling teeth. The book is slightly above her reading level as she is still only emergent at school. However, there were plenty of her sight words in the book and she was able to help me complete the book.

I liked the format. It introduces bees nicely, and gives you a bit more information as you go. It also repeats the information as you go, to re-enforce what is being learnt. The language is simple, but not condescending. I liked the way it still used the correct terms for things and described them well for a young reader. It also had full colour photographs and a glossary which was helpful to extend the learning. Hopefully my daughter will be reading this herself before the end of term one.

Hubby and I both were really impressed with this range of books. Hubby picked up Busy as a Bee to read to Miss One and she was absolutely captivated with it. This book is slightly bigger than the readers that Miss Six brings home from school so was easy to hold and to turn pages. Each page has amazing colour photos of bees and these are worth the price alone. Miss One just loves the pictures in this book.

Miss Six can easily read this to Miss Four and Miss One and we all like the font and double spacing between lines so it is easy to distinguish each individual word. Each page has 2-3 very simple sentences which relate to the pictures. We have all learnt about bees and it is nice to have a reader that is factual and informative with such beautiful photography. There is also a glossary at the back so we have been using this with Miss Four and Miss Six to teach them how to learn what a word means.

This book is really great and I am so pleased we got this in time to take on holiday with us as it has been a great tool to use for all three children. We will definitely be getting others in this series and recommending them for Miss Six's school.

Busy as a Bee is a great book for explaining to children how bees fit into our ecosystem. Before reading this book to them my preschoolers would tell me (on a good day) that honey comes from bees. Since then they are able to explain about pollen and nectar and how bees help the plants to make seeds. I am a home-based childcarer and the children are often talking to me about things they see in the garden. This book has given me the means to explain the bee's actions in a simple way that they can understand.

I love photographs throughout the book. They magnify things that are hard for us to see with our eyes and even harder when you are trying to point something out to a child without scaring the bee away. The photos really helped give examples of what the bee can do.

I like that although my children enjoyed me reading it to them it is also a book that my schools may purchase for their reading programme (and be utilised in the science curriculum) as Kingfisher books have a good system for leveling their books and choosing subject matter that will engage the struggling older reader.