Mason Meets A Mason Bee

This is a cute rhyming book for children that tells facts about bees and their importance in pollinating the plants that we eat. It also tells about the dangers of pesticides and has lovely photographs of bees and flowers and an adorable little boy. I did, however, think that the photos of bees that they had drawn faces on were rather creepy. There are not many of those and perhaps children will think they are cute. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

Mason is a boy who is afraid of bees until he comes face to face with a Mason Bee only to find that the bee is afraid of humans too!

In this fun and educational story Mason learns about the importance of bees from a bee himself. Once Mason is assured that bees are not out to hurt him, he learns why bees are important to him and the ecosystem. In a rhyming scheme, kids will learn not to fear bees, what bees do to help us and what we can do to help them. Mason Meets a Mason Bee introduces the very important topic of the declining bee population to children in an easy-to-understand way and opens up a dialogue for what children can do to help the bee population.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.

REVIEW MASON MEETS A MASON BEE

A delightful story with a serious real-life message, MASON MEETS A MASON BEE photographically illustrates the encounter of a young boy named MASON, with a type of bee [New to me!] which daily pollinated 100 times the amount of a honeybee. This particular Mason bee is both verbal and voluble, and instructs his namesake on several important lawn and garden matters.

The book also appends explanations, research, and links. The author, Dawn Pape, is the LawnChair Gardener.

This is a wonderful young children's story about the fact the bees are slowly becoming extinct, and when they do - if we do not prevent it - we're going to be in a much sorrier state than ever we will be through climate change. Climate change will screw up this planet, I promise you, but losing bees will hit us with a gut punch from which we will have a seriously hard time recovering.

Dawn Pape, a self-described "lawn-chair gardener" has a degree in Environmental Studies and a Master's in Environmental Education, and this story features her own son meeting a bee and learning all about what bees do and why it's important. It's told in a sing-song rhyme and illustrated with photographs, some of which are augmented to make the bee look a little more human, with startled eyes and smiles!

At first, Mason is scared of the bee, but slowly he comes to realize that it's not interested in him. It's just "wants to do its job" - gathering nectar and pollen for its own purposes, but incidentally pollinating the plants as it does so. This is a symbiotic relationship that's been going on for a hundred million years - that is until humans came along at the very end of that huge time period and started screwing things up.

Contrary to what you may have heard on Doctor Who(!), bees aren't aliens! There are some twenty thousand species of them, all evolved on Earth and they range in size from a variety of "sting-less" bee measuring only two millimeters (believe it or not - Trigonisco duckel!) to the Mason bee, featured in this story, which can grow to almost 40 millimeters.

The death of a beehive is referred to these days as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - that is as long as it meets certain criteria. Forms of it have been noted for a hundred and fifty years on a small scale, but over the last forty years, the problem seems to have become far more serious than an occasional outbreak, with wild bee populations going into decline, and "domesticated" colonies being hit noticeably. By 2007, "...large commercial migratory beekeepers in several states had reported heavy losses associated with CCD. Their reports of losses varied widely, ranging from 30% to 90% of their bee colonies" (wikipedia).

There is a variety of causes for CCD "...such as pesticides, mites, fungus, beekeeping practices (such as the use of antibiotics or long-distance transportation of beehives), malnutrition, other pathogens, and immunodeficiencies. The current scientific consensus is that no single factor is causing CCD" (wikipedia). The author of this story book seems to place the blame on neonicotinoids a component of pesticides, and there seems to be a scientific consensus supporting her conclusion: "A 2013 peer-reviewed literature review concluded neonicotinoids in the amounts typically used harm bees and safer alternatives are urgently needed."

So there it is. It's an important topic, and it's one of a type which you do not usually see tackled in children's literature. That's why this book is important, and can be a useful part of any young child's environmental education. I recommend it as part of a complete environmental education that every child should have.

A wonderful story about a boy and a bee with the same name. The bee educates the boy and the reader on the importance of insects in our world. This was a fun, fact filled book that lets everyone who reads it know what they can do to help take care of our planet.

A cute tale for early readers with garden knowledge added!

Mason meets a mason bee, is a very educational and funny little book. It provides valuable information about Mason Bees and insects in general. It provides information about how important they are to the world (they pollinate which means they are giving us food). It is very informative, it is based on very recent research: ex. research about pesticide and how it may contribute to Bee Hive collapse.

In the end the book has a very informative essay for adults, which outlines the bee-crisis and stands we can take to help without sounding condescending.

Overall it is a great educational book, with great imagery. .