How to Bee

By: Bren MacDibble
Location: FIC MAC
Genre: Sci Fi, Environment, Climate Change, Family

This book is a winner:
Winner of the NZ Book Prize for Junior Fiction 2018
Winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia 2018
Winner of the Patricia Wrightson Prize in the NSW Premiers Awards.
Shortlisted: Queensland Literary Prize
Shortlisted: South Australian Festival Literary Prize
Shortlisted: Aurealis Award
Shortlisted: Ditmar Award 


Peony lives with her sister and grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand.
Will Peony's grit and quick thinking be enough to keep her safe?
A story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live.

 I love Dimitys review on this book in Goodreads

This is a brave story set in Australia in the not-too-distant future but has global implications that allow readers to feel as though they could be anywhere on the planet despite the odd geographical reference. Peony lives with her sister and aging grandfather on a fruit farm. Her chief aspiration is to be a Bee - the bravest, most nimble of farm workers who flit from tree to tree pollinating flowers by hand. If this sounds like a concept that is slightly askew, by the time you've experience MacDibble's palpably natural narrative, it'll be one you are thoroughly familiar if not comfortable with. Could this be the end of the world as we know it or, as I'd rather believe, just another notable chapter in the history of humans being humans - badly.

Whatever your take on climate change and the way we treat the planet, How to Bee, never wallows in despair or hindsight and neither does Peony. When she is taken from her home by a mother who aspires more than just the meager country existence the rest of her family and friends endure, her brassy drive and cast-iron determination draw her right back to the home she loves, like a bee to its hive. But not before she spreads a little hope and good sense in the big scary city.

This story will make you grin, cheer, cry just a bit and want to fly with Peony as she Bees. It's about being true to yourself, to those who love you, about living your dreams wildly and the profound power of friendship. It could also quite possible change your whole outlook of and appreciation for fruit. More highly recommended than an apple a day.