WHEN THE BEES BUZZED OFF!

Something is wrong in the garden: The bees have inexplicably vanished in this lift-the-flap story.

The insects and other things that crawl decide to send “the bravest and cleverest bugs” to find the bees and bring them back. They’re not in the vegetable garden, triggering instant concern that their “poor, precious vegetables” will fail. Maybe the bees have gone underground to get out of the hot sun? They aren’t at the garden pond, either. As the little critters search, dialogue balloons provide comic relief—a beetle impatiently demands of one comrade, “Do you ever stop eating?” “I’m a very hungry caterpillar,” is the mildly abashed reply—as the straightforward narrative conveys the plot and bee-related facts are revealed beneath flaps. Since often these facts are related by bees that are supposedly missing (“I’m very good at [pollinating] because I’m furry and pollen sticks to my body,” explains a bee underneath a flap on an otherwise bee-less spread), readers will have to maintain some flexibility of mind to negotiate the narrative dissonance. The thin plot comes to a conclusion when the scouting party arrives at a field full of flowers and bees—“ ‘Why did you leave?’ the bugs cried. ‘We were hungry,’ buzzed the bees”—and decides to spread wildflower seeds back in their own patch of garden. Children will wonder, what were the bees eating before they abruptly left?—to no avail. The flaps, often die-cut in the shapes of leaves, are quite flimsy.

It doesn’t make much sense, but the bugs are cute.