Killer Bees

Author: Melinda Blau
Copyright Date: 1977
Publisher: Contemporary Perspectives, Inc.
Number of Pages: 48
Reading Level: 8 & Up
Genre: Informational

Summary

From the title, it is clear that this book is about dangerous bees. The first chapter starts out telling a story about how a grown man, as well as some of his horses, were killed from multiple bee stings. Another woman was also killed from bees swarming and stinging her all over; no one could help her. Chapter two talks about how these killer bees came about--by humans experimenting--as a mix between African and European bees. The next few chapters discuss how the bees were able to spread so fast and cause so much damage. The book also talks about different ways people have tried to diminish the number of these killer African bees--by breeding them with other species or poisoning them. None of these ideas worked. The rest of the book introduces new ideas and theories people have about what might work to slow the growth of these bees, and the dangers that could happen if these bees come to the United States.

This book is very factual, however it only contains information about the bees in general. The layout is not ideal for today's standards, however it is good considering the time it was written. It has pictures and some illustrations that might be interesting to those who read it.

Reaction

I am not a huge fan of this book at all. It does have some really interesting facts, but you don't really learn a lot about bees, and I think it would mostly scare people, especially younger kids.

Recommendations

I don't think I would really recommend this to anyone, unless they're really interested in the subject or wanting to do more research on it.

Problems/Conflicts

The only problem I could see is that it talks about bees have killed people and how if they keep spreading, they can continue to kill more and more people. Some parents probably don't want their kids to be reading that, especially because it can create unnecessary fears of bees.