The Bee

This story focuses on a frightened young girl who travels across several Canadian Arctic communities to escape a terrifying bumblebee. After fleeing for days, Apita stops to declare that she’s not scared of the bee anymore. She embraces the formerly ferocious creature and continues her journey triumphantly. This story teaches children to confront their fears and take control of frightening situations.

In addition to being an author, Becky Han is an Inuktitut singer-songwriter; she based this book on a traditional song she wrote about her community in the Arctic Bay. An Inuktitut pronunciation guide and glossary are included in the back to teach children about this unique language. This page describes some grammatical rules to teach readers how to speak the language. Throughout the book, Inuktitut words are highlighted in red to separate them from the English words present.

The terminology page would be more useful in the front of the book, before the speaker starts reading these unfamiliar words. I also believe a map or pronunciation guide to the territories would be a helpful addition. This book will help children ages four to eight learn about this beautiful language through the art of simple storytelling.