If you’d like to read more about bees and honey, look for these books at your local library, independent bookstore, or used bookseller.

(Adult books listed first, then Children's.)

Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation

By Tammy Horn

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

The Lore of the Honey Bee

By Tickner Edwardes

Publisher: Kessinger Publishing

Letters from the Hive – An Intimate History of Bees, Honey and Humankind

By Stephen Buchmann with Banning Repplier

Publisher:  Bantam Dell

Honey from flower to table

By Stephanie Rosenbaum

Publisher:  Chronicle Books, LLC, San Francisco

Beeing.  Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honeybees

By Rosanne Daryl Thomas

Publisher:  The Globe Pequot Press

The Honey Bee

By James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould

Publisher:  The Scientific American Library

L’Esprit Des Abeilles

By Julian Francon

Translated 1939, by H. Eltringham

Publisher :  Methuen & Co., London

A Book of Bees : And How to Keep Them

by Sue Hubbell

The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore

(Dover Books on Anthropology and Folklore)

by Hilda M. Ransome

Sweetness and Light:  The Mysterious History of the Honeybee

by Hattie Ellis

Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee:  The Classicbeekeeper's Manual

by L. L. Langstroth

Honey: A Connoisseur's Guide With Recipes

by Gene Opton and Nancie Hughes

Childrens Books Related to Bees and Honey

The Bumblebee Queen

April Pulley Sayre

Illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne

Available at Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies in Sacramento, CA

Children’s Reading about Honey Bees and Honey.  The following list was compiled by Little Literary Beekeepers J. Whitford (Falls Church, VA USA)and was last updated: May 22, 2006

The Life and Times of the Honeybee

by Charles Micucci   

Ages 4-8.  Of all the books on the honey making process, I think this one is the best.

Bea's Own Good

by Linda Talley   

Ages 4-8. Set in France, a young honeybee learns what happens when she breaks the rules and leaves the hive.

Beekeepers

by Linda Oatman High   

Ages 4-8. A story of a grandfather and granddaughter tending their bees.

The Bee-Man of Orn

by Frank R. Stockton   

Ages 4-8. A bee-man finds out from a junior sorcerer that he was something else before he became a beekeeper.

The Bee Tree

by Patricia Polacco   

Ages 4-8. On the day that Mary Ellen announces she is tired of reading, Grampa carefully traps and then releases a series of bees so they can follow them to the bee tree.

Belinda Bee's Busy Year

by Rusty Wise   

Ages 4-8.  First in a series. This book allows us to follow Belinda Bee thru the seasons.

Belinda Bee Swarms Away

by Rusty Wise   

Ages 4-8. Second in a series. A new Spring arrives and Belinda is shocked to discover she has to swarm away with the old Queen Bee.

The Best Beekeeper of Lalibela:  A Tale from Africa

by Cristina Kessler   

Ages 4-8. This tale shows the resourcefulness of a young girl to create the best honey in her village.

The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh/WTP

by A. A. Milne   

All Ages. This is the glorious 75th anniversary edition of all things Pooh.

Honey Bea (Jump at the Sun)

by Kim L. Siegelson   

Ages 9-12. Weaving strands of fairy tales, voudon, slave stories, and African myth, Siegelson crafts a mesmerizing tale heavy with the scent of honey and flowers and rooted in Louisiana soil.

The Honeybee Mystery (Boxcar Children Special)

by Gertrude Chandler Warner   

$3.95   Used & New from: $0.98 

Young Adult. The Boxcar children solve a mystery on a honey farm.

The Honeybee & the Robber

by Eric Carle   

Pre-school. A honeybee protects her hive from a big bear.

Honey... Honey... Lion!

by Jan Brett   

Ages 4-8. 32 pages. Honeyguide, an African bird, has always helped her friend Badger find honey, and in turn, the team always devours the sweet hives together.

Mystery of the Honeybees' Secret (Three Cousins Detective Club)

by Elspeth Murphy; Young Adult. The Three Cousin Detective Club discover a mystery when they learn about beekeeping from a neighbor.

Ned Kelly and the City of Bees

by Thomas Keneally   

Ages 9-12.  During a bout of appendicitis, ten-year-old Ned Kelly is reduced to the size of a bee and spends the summer in a beehive.

A Taste Of Honey

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace   

Ages 4-8.  When a young bear asks her father, "Where does honey come from?"  We are taken from the jar of honey back to its source.

When the Bees Fly Home

by Andrea Cheng   

Ages 4-8. When hard times fall on Jonathan's family, he and his brother help out with beekeeping and candlemaking.

The Honey Makers

by Gail Gibbons   

Ages 4-8.  Gail Gibbons does an excellent job of explaining the honey making process.

The Magic School Bus Inside A Beehive (Magic School Bus)

by Joanna Cole   

Ages 4-8.  Take a ride on the Magic School Bus and go inside a beehive.