This beautifully illustrated and insightful non fiction book about bees would be a great addition to a middle school inquiry based science unit. It would allow students to be their own investigators into why bee colonies may collapse and gain understanding into how these colonies are so important to humans. There will also be informative misconceptions addressed in the book such as the fact that not all bees live in colonies, but rather live in solitary. Students can form their hypothesis before we read the book and then change their hypothesis at the end once they learn more about bees.

Resources:http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/hive-detectives/ ( )

This book would be a good book to use in a research project. Specifically in locations that are not used to the terminology used with bees. Each page has beautiful photographs to display the information that was given.

Overall I really liked the book. It has a nice flow to it! It starts small focusing on one bee keeper (trying to make kids less scared of bees) and moves into the big picture with the bee epidemic/extinction. I really enjoyed a lot of the photos and at times noticed myself just staring at the photos instead of reading. I'm also very passionate about the bee epidemic. Save the Bees! ( )

The author outlines the current situation with honey bee colonies, from how colonies are kept, to colony collapse, to how honey is harvested. The book discusses what colony collapse is and that it affects not just honey production, but also crop production. Several scientists and beekeepers are introduces, as well as possible causes of colony collapse disorder, like certain insects or pesticides.

This book talks about the process of harvesting honey from bee farms, it uses many pictures to provide more information about the equipment that is used to harvest honey. The book then goes into talking about the decline of bees and what experts are doing to learn why bees are dying.