THE HONEY MAKERS

Although most folks buy it in a simple jar, honey is nothing short of miraculous in the way it is manufactured—bees use nectar from over a million flowers just to make one pound of the stuff. It's that kind of fact that pops up frequently as Gibbons (Country Fair, 1994, etc.) investigates the lives of these industrious ``manufacturers'' and their relationship to humans through beekeeping. She follows a worker bee from birth through its many jobs: house bee, nurse, wax maker, guard, and forager. Queens, drones, and life within the hive are all covered in detail. Outside the hive, the beekeepers are busy, too, setting up the hive, maintaining it, and collecting and processing the honey. Gibbons includes sample pages for each month from a beekeeper's diary—even in the cold months of December and January, there is work to be done. Bright pictures back up the text in a slightly looser—still highly detailed—line than is Gibbons's typical style. She incorporates some of the clichÇs about bees into the book, giving real meaning to beeline and busy as a bee. A final page rounds up some random tidbits, covering everything from stings to honey flavors. Bee-utiful. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5+)