The Queen Bee, and Other Nature Stories

Step into a world where the hum of a hive sounds like empire, and the sway of flowers tells stories older than memory. Carl Ewald's collection gathers nature tales that treat the smallest creatures with the grandest drama. The Queen Bee faces the weight of her kingdom, making choices that will determine her colony's survival. In other stories, anemones anchor themselves to the sea floor while currents carry the dreams of the creatures around them, and a dragon-fly hovers above a water-lily, their brief encounter capturing the entire cycle of life in a single afternoon. Ewald writes with the quiet certainty of a naturalist who also believes in magic. His insects speak, yes, but they speak with purpose and feeling, and young readers will find in these pages not merely lessons about nature but invitations to see the natural world as a place where every creature has a story worth attending to. These are tales that understand children can handle both beauty and melancholy, both the glory of summer and the silence of winter.