The Bees

The Bees by Laline Paull
340 Pages


 Flora 717 is a bee born at the lowest level of the hive.  Since she has some small difference from her brethren, Flora finds herself moving among all the castes, from the nursery to the gatherers. But it is proving to be a hard winter and the survival of the hive is in question.


At first I was a little dubious about a book about a bee, would it be some sort of insectile Watership Downs?  It is actually pretty good, and even though the bees are anthropomorphized there is enough of a scientific framework  that you can believe how the hive operates.