There is a story concerning bees I couldn’t wait to share with Melissa Garrick Edwards. Edwards is the author of Can You See If I’m a Bee? a—wait for it—honey of a book that de-sting-matizes this misunderstood insect and teaches readers about why “they are important to you and me.”

My story is true: On Sept. 11, 2001, my son’s Illinois elementary school went into lockdown following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The school’s administration opted to throw bees under the bus, telling the students they had to stay indoors because the playgrounds were abuzz with swarming bees.

Needless to say, this news terrified them.

Edwards couldn’t help but laugh when I told her. “I think that’s a pretty typical reaction when people think about bees swarming, and it’s kind of sad,” she says. “When you think of swarming bees, there’re usually several thousand, and people fear them as dangerous, stinging insects. But they are actually docile and nonthreatening. It’s natural for them to [swarm] because they are following the queen to protect her from predators. People think honeybees will sting you no matter what. [But] they really only do it when they defend their nests or if you swat at them and really irritate them.

“I worked at the Filoli Estates in Woodside, California, as an intern. And I’ve gotten into beds with perennials and annuals with thousands of bees all over those plants and have never gotten stung because I move slowly and they know I’m not going to hurt them; they just want to get their nectar from the flowers.” 

Can You See If I’m a Bee? features the honeybee, the Cuckoo Bee (yes, really), the robber fly, the green sweat bee, the mason bee, the female leafcutter bee, the common fly, the bumblebee, the male carder bee, the hover fly, the dwarf honey bee, the mud dauber wasp, the carpenter bee, the male long-horned bee, and several others (there are, Edwards reports, more than 25,000 different kinds of bee species around the world, and that doesn’t include the wanna-bees who ape them).

Repetition (section headings ask, “Am I a bee?”) and engaging rhymes convey the major characteristics of each insect, with illustrations by Jonathan Woodward. Here is Edwards on the dwarf honeybee: 

Another amazing thing:

I’m a honeybee that doesn’t sting.

My sisters and I protect our hive’s honey

By coating intruders in sap till they shrivel into mummies.

I also protect our hive and fight

By giving any predators a nice big bite!

Kirkus Reviews praises Can You See If I’m a Bee? as “well crafted [and] fun-filled with eye-catching images. A book of entomological facts…all delivered with a light, child-friendly touch.” 

Edwards, a landscape architect (now a consultant), was by no means a bee girl growing up. “I annoyed a honeybee once, and I got stung,” she says. “I stepped on a yellowjacket nest when I was 14. They are very mean and aggressive; they sting more than once. They got in my hair. I was in bed for a week. I don’t think they had Benadryl back then. It was very painful. I didn’t know the difference between yellowjackets and bees.”

It wasn’t until she started doing research for an outdoor classroom garden for her child’s elementary school in California that she became intrigued by the often misunderstood (and misidentified) insect. She attended a lecture on bees conducted by Dr. Vicki Wojcik, who gets a “Special Thanks” credit in the book, which grew out of Edwards’ “marketing” of the classroom garden.

“Writing a book was not on my radar,” she says with a laugh. “I was a parent with a child at the school. Another mother and a science teacher championed the garden, and we had to market everything ourselves. I created different information boards for the kids and parents to interact with so they’d become interested [in our project]. I had a board that asked, “Am I a bee?” and different insect photographs under each photograph that said either, ‘I’m a bee’ or ‘I’m not a bee.’ The kids really liked that.” 

The book’s rhyming structure is an homage to the Dr. Seuss books her father read to her as a child growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. “They were my favorites because they rhymed and they were so funny and creative,” she says. 

The neighborhood in which she grew up contained many wooded areas, which fueled her interest in nature. She developed further interests in science, art, and design. At the University of California Berkeley, she opted for classes in landscape architecture, which combined these passions. “I wanted to be a biological illustrator until I found out they were a dying breed, to be replaced by computers,” she says.

Edwards hopes Can You See If I’m a Bee? serves as an accessible primer on the insect. “I’m hoping it’s a book that children will grow into,” she says. “Younger children can enjoy the pictures and guessing whether an insect is a bee or a mimic, and older readers will enjoy learning about bees, I hope.”

Bees are endangered, and Edwards also hopes her book raises awareness to their vital importance. “Bees pollinate so many of the plants we rely on for food,” she says. 

Ten percent of the book’s proceeds will be donated to organizations that work on behalf of bees. “We can all do our part to help bees,” she says. “Simple solutions include supporting local beekeepers and buying local honey, planting native plants, and stop spraying pesticides. Bees

need a habitat to survive just like we do. They need their food sources, and development is taking away their habitat.”

Edwards does not consider herself to be a bee expert. “I learn something every day,” she says. “They’re pretty complicated insects. One thing I learned recently: They can taste with their feet!”

Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based writer.