Nominees:   2022202120202019201820172016201520142013201220112010200920082007200620052004200320022001

2017 Nominee

The Summer We Saved the Bees

Written by Robin Stevenson.
Published in 2015 by Orca.

Wolf’s mother is obsessed with saving the world’s honeybees, so it’s not too surprising when she announces that she’s taking her Save the Bees show on the road—with the whole family. Wolf thinks it’s a terrible plan, and not just because he’ll have to wear a bee costume—in public. He likes his alternative school and hates the idea of missing weeks of classes. His teenage stepsister doesn’t want to leave her boyfriend, and one of his little half sisters has stopped talking altogether, but Wolf’s mom doesn’t seem to notice. She’s convinced that the world is doomed unless ordinary people take extraordinary action. It isn’t until the kids take some drastic action of their own that she is forced to listen when Wolf tells her that dragging the family around the province in a beat-up Ford panel van may not be the best idea she ever had.

Read Canadian Materials Review


9 thoughts on “The Summer We Saved the Bees

  1. Roxana.Albu

    I think it was a amazing book.Absolutely wonderful. It taught me a lesson.Even though the bees are dying and all that, well it is bad that the bees are dying. But maybe it’s to much to drag a whole family on a trip to city to city,especially when one of your kids is not talking at all and is having total meltdowns, the mom wasn’t really even reacting to that.This is a very meaningful book and I hope you read it as well.

  2. Westglen

    I loved this book , I would give it 5 stars. I am giving it that rating because I thought that it was fun to read it, I also liked it because it was relatable at times in the book.
    I would recommend this book to grades 4-6 , It’s good for grade 4-6 because it’s a pretty easy to read , there are no hard words or word that are hard to understand in the book. But grade 7’s could easily read this book and I think they should have more of a challenging book to read other then a very easy book.

    A.D.S

  3. Grande Cache Municipal Library and Sonrise Christian School

    it is great it is a nice book i give this book 1000000000000000009090909900909

  4. Grande Cache Municipal Library and Sonrise Christian School

    I really like this book is really good and it talks about saving the bees because it talks without the bees ther wont be as good polanatchin

  5. Hillhurst School

    I think that “The Summer we saved the bees” is a very good book. It is about a kid named Wolf. Wolf’s mother is obsessed with saving the bees and wasn’t paying attention to anything else, so when Wolf’s sister, Whisper stops talking, Wolf tries to help her and convince his mother and father to help too. It is realistic and sometimes I even thought that what was happening was real! I think that the author wanted to tell us about global warming and how it affects the bees and their pollination. Without Bees, the world would not look the same way it is now. No flowers, not very much food, and NO HONEY! I could totally feel Wolf’s emotions and sometimes felt like I was him! Overall, I thought it was a really good book and I think that all kids in grades 4/5 should read it.

  6. St. Jerome

    The book is great and what I think makes it even greater is that it teaches you two lessons which are,, sometimes something’s important but that doesn’t make it more important than your family and you can’t do everything, you just do what you can and hope it helps.

  7. Grande Cache Municipal Library & Sonrise Christian School

    Even though you think this book is about saving the bees it has a lot of twists and turns about family life! That is the only way Wolfe gets his mother to understand how they all feel about her saving the bees show and the trip. I enjoyed the book very much!


Review This Book