THE POET AND THE BEES: A Story of the Seasons Sylvia Plath Kept Bees, by Amy Novesky and Jessica Love, Viking Books for Young Readers, Feb. 11, 2025, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 4-8)
The Poet and the Bees, by Amy Novesky and Jessica Love, was inspired by the Poet Sylvia Plath and the seasons she kept bees.
Sylvia Plath is remembered for her stirring poetry and the tragic legacy her work left behind. But it is lesser known that she was a beekeeper and completed her last book of poems while tending to her bees and harvesting honey.
Author and beekeeper Amy Novesky shines a new light on the life and work of Plath through the lens of her last seasons with her beloved bees—and how during their short and busy lives, they filled her with inspiration and hope—while the evocative paintings by Stonewall Book Award winner Jessica Love reveal the tenderness and wonder of one of America’s most iconic poets. —Synopsis provided by Viking Books for Young Readers
The Poet and the Bees celebrates iconic poet Sylvia Plath and her final writings. Author Amy Novesky’s prose is warm and full of imagery: In a field of scarlet-strung flowers, a hive hums like a panicked heart.” Novesky makes Plath accessible for children, focusing on Plath’s love of nature rather than her depression.
Illustrator Jessica Love’s watercolor and ink paintings have a lovely soft quality to them that add to imagination and awe of nature.
The Poet and the Bees is a beautiful read that will appeal to kids and adults alike.
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