"When it comes to all living things, always remember to BEE nice... BUMBLE BEE NICE."
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Bumble Bee Baseball by Dennis Santos Trafford Publishing
book review by Jenifer Kimble
When the people of a small town pull together to make a baseball field out of supplies from the old train station, they get more than just a new past time. While the kids enjoy the fans that come to watch them day after day, they aren't as fond as the resident bumble bees that have made their homes within the fence posts now surrounding the field. At the urging of their coach, the kids soon begin using the bees for batting practice. After tapping on the fence posts to make them come out, the kids swat at them one after the other. The bees of course retaliate by stinging the kids and the crowd, cancelling the game and making the team and coach think twice about their actions.
Santos uses a sing-song rhyming technique along with short, simple paragraphs to make his story both readable and memorable. The cute story disguises its lesson until the end, entertaining juvenile readers along the way. Full page, colorful illustrations add to the charisma of this book that could be about bullying, sportsmanship, or respecting nature. Best suited for young readers still developing their skills, this could certainly make its way to a leveled reader library for kindergarteners to early third-graders. While the book lacks proper punctuation, probably by design, it certainly contains enough charm to make it a good read.