A powerful exploration of the integral roles of bees in the environment becomes, at the same time, a beautiful story about unlikely friendship. Another example of Alison Jay’s work is also in the corpus: Out of the Blue. Bee & Me includes a positive depiction of urban life: a little girl lives in a friendly, busy, brightly coloured city, until one day a bee flies through her window, exhausted. The little girl knows to feed bees sugar water, and the bee comes back to health.
The magic begins as the rain falls outside; the bee returns, soaking wet, for more sugar water. This time, the bee stays, and grows bigger and bigger. Before long, the girl and the bee are best friends, and the girl flies around the city and the neighbouring countryside on its back. Eventually, time comes for the pair to say goodbye, and the bee goes off into the sky.
The lush illustrations present themes such as: the climate, the circular connection between life and death, the relationship between human civilisation and the protection of the environment.
