Killer Bees - Hardcover

Gr. 4-6. Lavies is no stranger to hymenopteran. Her book Wasps at Home was published in 1991. Here, she turns her attention to honeybees, the Africanized variety that has become the stuff of horror movies. To her credit, she doesn't exploit the shock value of the subject, even though she does include a few true accounts of humans who've survived attacks by "killer" swarms. She gives basic information on honeybees and an explanation of how the Africanized variety came into being, but Lavies is mainly concerned with the bees' behavior and how it differs from that of its European honeybee cousins in the Western Hemisphere. The photos, in full color, are good (Lavies is a former photographer for National Geographic); a few, such as the picture of the swarm on the dust jacket and the close-up of a bee being artificially inseminated, are quite dazzling. The lack of captions, however, means that some of the browsers attracted to the title will come away unsatisfied. Report writers won't have an easy time either: there are no specific chapter divisions, and an index is not included. This is a responsible and informative treatment of the subject, but it might have better served its audience had it been more thoughtfully designed. Stephanie Zvirin

Grade 3-6?A fascinating firsthand look at Africanized honeybees, a.k.a. "killer bees." Having donned heavy protective clothing, Lavies photographs her subjects from inside her veil, capturing amazing shots and giving readers a "you are there" perspective. She presents a general history of honeybees, traces the spread of these insects taken from Africa to Brazil in 1957, and explains how their aggressive behavior in defending their colonies sometimes results in deadly attacks on humans and animals. Through brilliant full-color photos and a clear, informative text, the author downplays the usual sensationalism connected with the bees and describes enlightened methods of dealing with them as they move through Central to North America. Laurence Pringle's Killer Bees (Morrow, 1990; o.p.) has poor-quality black-and-white photos, but an extensive bibliography; Kathleen Davis and Dave Mayes's Killer Bees (Dillon, 1993) does a thorough job in an attractive format. Lavies offers an engaging description of these recent immigrants to the New World. Topnotch nonfiction.?Kathleen McCabe, East Meadow Public Library, NY
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