24th September World Wasp Day

Everybody knows that bees have a crucial role in nature, but did you know that wasps are as essential? This day aims to restore the wasps' battered reputation. The most essential service provided by wasps is pest control. Indeed, they are predators hunting flies, caterpillars, and spiders as a source of protein.

Wasps generally have a bad reputation. In Australia this villainous status is largely based on an introduced species, the European wasp, which is a nasty pest, and certainly knows how to ruin a good picnic or barbecue.

But did you know that Australia is also home to more than 12,000 native wasp species? And just like our beloved bees and butterflies, they are important pollinators – and who doesn’t love a pollinator? They also play a critical role in our environment as both predator and prey. Katrina Germein and Suzanne Houghton's book Wonderful Wasps is a great way to learn about Australia's wasps.

There's not a lot of other books about wasps in the library, but some of these may help.

16th - 22nd June Pollinator Week

Following on from BEAD comes Pollinator Week. We haven't celebrated this in the library before, but it would make a fantastic display!


 

Pollinator Week 2025 is a celebration of the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, economies, and agriculture. Under the inspiring theme "Pollinators Weave Connections," this year's event urges us to appreciate the essential role pollinators play in creating and expressing human culture, in all of its forms. These essential creatures, including bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles, and hummingbirds, are the unsung heroes behind the food we enjoy and the beauty that surrounds us. As we reflect on the interconnectedness of our world, let's unite in a collective effort to protect and preserve these crucial pollinators.

Your library display can feature books about bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles and hummingbirds. Australia doesn't have any native hummingbirds, but our library does have some beautiful books about them.

Start with this wonderful book from the CSIRO:

• Pollination  by Christopher Cheng and Danny Snell.

A child’s day in the garden with their Gran and Pa leads to a wonderful exploration of pollination. Join them in discovering how pollination happens in our gardens and backyards, and the importance it has for our environment. Meet the animals involved in pollination and the plants that depend on pollination to produce our fruit, vegetables and even our clothes!

And this book is coming very soon, The Great Pollination Investigation and How we get Food from Flowers  by Deborah Hocking.

 Take a look inside a flower and find out what all the little parts do, meet the amazing animals that carry pollen from bloom to bloom, and discover how seeds and fruits are made. Look for the adorable bees buzzing around on every page with fun first-hand facts to share.You can carry out your very own pollination investigation with the project at the back of the book and instructions on how to make a pollination wand to tickle your flowers!

Here's some more books which you could add to your display:

20th May World Bee Day

The purpose of World Bee Day is to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy. It provides an opportunity for governments, organisations, civil society and concerned citizens everywhere to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping.

Bees play an important role in pollinating native plants in our Australian ecosystem. The vast majority of global pollinators are wild including over 20,000 species of bees. Australia is home to around 2,000 species of native bees, the majority of which are solitary bees.

This relatively new book will help you explain all this to students in your classes.

There are teacher's notes here to help too.

These two books from CSIRO publishing would also be good to have

These also come with teachers notes. See the CSIRO webpage

Your library might also have this:

Why the 20th May?

20 May is the birth date of Anton Janša (1734–1773), a Slovenian beekeeper, the pioneer of modern beekeeping and one of the greatest authorities on the subject of bees. Slovenia is a nation of beekeepers, and beekeeping there enjoys a status equal to that of other types of agricultural activity.

The library has these books that feature beekeeping and beekeepers:

If you need more bee books look at these Pinterest pages.

So They Build - Bees

Bees build their hives using wax from their bodies, shaped into 6-sided cells where honey and eggs are stored for protection. Aren't they clever? 

There are so many wonderful picture books about bees and they just keep coming!

These are just a few that I particularly like - 

• Look Inside the World of Bees by Emily Bone and John Claude

• The Secret Life of Bees  by Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker

• The World of Bees by Christina Banfi and Guilia De Amicis

• Honey Bees Close Up  by Charles Hope

• The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive  by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

• The Beeman  by Laurie Krebs and Valeria Cis

• Bees A Honeyed History  by Piotr Sacha

• The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner

 • Bee by Brittany Teckentrup

• The Honeybee  by Kirsten Hall and Isabelle Arsenault

• The Beehive  by Jory John

There's even more to explore here.

Don't forget native bees and Australian bees:

• The Beehive by Megan Daly and Max Hamilton

• Bee Detectives  by Vanessa Ryan-Rendall and Brenna Quinlan

There's even more to explore here.

Don't forget native bees and Australian bees:

• The Beehive by Megan Daly and Max Hamilton

• Bee Detectives  by Vanessa Ryan-Rendall and Brenna Quinlan

20th May World Bee Day

To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development the UN designated the 20th May be World Bee Day. In Australia World Bee Day is celebrated by getting as many children as possible to be involved in the Waggle Dance.

World Bee Day theme 2022 is “Bee engaged: Build Back Better for Bees”

In the library we have a 'bee' book display and there is so many really good books to choose from. See my Pinterest page here, but if you don't have many in your library and you are looking for some more, these five are outstanding, fairly recent and in print.

• Bee by Patricia Hegarty & Britta Teckentrup

• The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner

• When the Bees Buzzed Off by Lulu Bell & Stephen Bennett

• 1001 Bees by Joanna Rzezak

• If Bees Disappeared by Lily Williams