Brady and the Bombii Bumblebee by Anna Casamento Arrigo
Reviewed by Realistic Poetry International
Anna Arrigo’s Brady and the Bombii Bumblebee is a wonderful read and book for children, parents, and educators/schools, reminding us how important natural environments are, like meadows, to the millions of bumble bees swarming our incredible earth, working extremely hard to keep the natural circle of life going smoothly along.
Considering bees existence and importance to the human world, Arrigo also makes a point to share and expose how a spoiled and inhabitable biosphere for bees like main character, Bombi, and other essential bees such as cuckoo bee (the colony invader), Apini (the honeybee), and Euglossini (the orchid bee), can even go on to affect us (humans) AND the flow of our environments natural circle of life as well, ultimately illustrating that no matter what species you may be, human, flower, or bee, life on earth is always brilliantly interconnected!
But just how different would our world really be without essential species like bees? ‘Can’t the bees sustain without the meadows,’ some children in our reading group inquisitively ask? ‘Can’t people just plant more meadows, flowers, and gardens so that all the bees can continue to live and gather food, even if some meadows go away?’
These are only a few of the questions that arise as we barely scratch the surface of why these fuzzy, flying insects mean so much to the well-being of earth…and to us human beings! And through fun, simple, kid-friendly rhymes, Arrigo thoughtfully introduces the story by emphasizing and demonstrating emotion, as Bombi is afraid and saddened that all of the flowers are all going away due to the diminishing meadows! What happens without the meadows? As we read farther, we learn life changes drastically.
Without the prospering meadows, Bombi is forced to consider the negative effects that will subsequently occur, ultimately taking a huge toll on multiple different ecological aspects concerning the environment, including not being able to find nectar, pollinate flowers (crops too!), or successfully sustain their large-sized colonies. This also makes our group think about how important bees are to the beauty of nature as well, helping to diversify the assortment of flowers many of our eyes and senses so deeply admire! Like cosmos, zinnias, crocus, and foxglove. And while some of the bee’s tasks may sound rather simple, perhaps even easy to find an alternative resolution for, the truth is that without the bees doing their inborn jobs every day in our world, adeptly pollinating tasty crops like kiwifruit, okra, strawberries, cashews, and watermelon, produce would be in serious danger.
We are glad the Author decides to use technical and informative words such as ‘bombus,’ the scientific name for the bumblebee to stretch and expand our knowledge. The details of this meadow-less vision that haunts Bombi leads us to also take into account the impact of this devastation on the different areas and levels within the bee hierarchy, from top to bottom, like the queen bee, who will not have a place for her newly born offspring. Or what about the worker drones? Who will “have no more use for the nests they call their homes?”
Where does this leave our beautiful world? Not in a good situation. As we learn that interfering with the meadows means an interference to the bees, one of the world’s primary and most efficient natural pollinators, which means an interference to the natural circle of life, period.
We now find the answer to one of our previous questions: Can’t the bees sustain without the meadows, quickly learning that bees cannot simply eat anything they wish to, as some food “may be poisonous for Bombi and his kind.”
This truth leads us to the reason that explains why bees aren’t able to eat all kinds of food; pesticides. This includes sprays and poisons that are effective at maintaining flowers and plants, keeping them attractive and healthy, while on the downside, hazardous and dangerous for bumble bees like, Bombus. The illustration that accompanies this particular statement helps children by including a visual list of plants that are not good for bees to get food or eat from, including oleander, yellow jessamine, amaryllis, stargazer lily, and others.
But Bombi the Bumblebee isn’t giving up, not that easy! Instead, the bold, determined flying insect asks for our help and suggests we all plant flowers like mint, oregano, salvia, roses, peonies, and thyme to fight against the quickly disappearing meadows!
The kids in our group unquestionably love the playfulness in how Arrigo describes the bee’s pollination method, as a ‘dance upon the petals,’ which is supported through a vibrant illustration of the bee’s in motion, performing their pollination “happy dance,” moving and buzzing in celebration.
Inspired, Bombi the Bumblebee shares excellent easy suggestions that we can all attempt in effort to try and help sustain our best world-pollinators lives, habitats, and homes, all the way from North America to Europe, from Asia to Japan! This can be as simple as planting a wildflower strip along the walkway of your home or setting some flower pots outside your window sill! Bombi even tells us how we have the option to build what is called, ‘nesting boxes,’ to help the bees with their homes as well!
Overall, the harmonious and unified theme Author Anna Arrigo uses to interlink humans, nature, and bees is ingenious, creative, enlightening and makes this a positive, informative, and inspiring book that kids…or parents can’t deny! Bright and hopeful, Brady and the Bombii Bumblebee instills the value of working together, not the other way around, reiterating the valuable and significant themes of teamwork, creativity, imagination, nature, compassion, and collaboration.
Realistic Poetry International is happy to present this book with a 5-star rating and enjoyed reading this book with kids from ages 4-12! We’re sure you will too, so order your copy today!
***Great choice for parents, kids, and environmentalists! ***
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