The Sharing Bees: Kindness Matters, by Antoinette Clark/Illustrated by Russel Wayne, (2017, Royal7Publishing), $19.99, ISBN: 9780997926019
Ages 5-8
The Sharing Bees are a group of bees who play and work together in Honeycomb City. Kindness Matters stars Sadie, a worker bee who loves to share with her fellow bees, especially the adorable baby bees. Sadie heads out to get some pollen and nectar for the hive, along with her best friends, Gabby, Madi, and Simone, but when the rain starts to fall, the bees are worried: they’re loaded with with pollen and nectar, can they safely fly back to the hive? No problem! Sadie encourages her friends to work together, and the bees start sharing their load, spreading out the weight. They arrive home safely, feed the baby bees, and get some praise from the Queen herself!
Kindness Matters has a solid story to tell about teamwork and sharing. The text is a little dense for new readers, so it will work better as a readaloud. The artwork is bright and colorful, and the characters have bee bodies with human heads and antenna, so think about letting the kids make their own antenna headbands as a storytime craft. The characters are a diverse group and have big, expressive eyes and wide, happy smiles.
A cute story about teamwork and sharing, Kindness Matters is a nice additional purchase for collections.
