I'd like to talk to you folks about bees. Wait, where are you going? Just trust me, OK? In Clan Apis, you'll find a story that tells you the details of a honey bee's life cycle, from birth to death, and what their daily lives entail. It is true that this is the same kind of thing you can find in most entomological textbooks. What you won't find, however, is a story that is quite this humorous, touching and effective. Clan Apis is the story of Nyuki, a female bee who begins life as a larva, being attended by her sister Dvorah, and continues on through the life cycle. Nyuki is a charming character, with a goofy sense of humor, a tenacious curiosity and a wonderful wide-eyed optimism. Imagine Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes without quite the same mischievous streak and you've got an idea. Following her through childhood into adulthood is every bit as interesting as any coming of age story, and you'll notice by the end that you've learned some things about the world of the insects (particularly bees) and how they work.
Hosler humanizes the world of insects, but not to such a degree that he might as well be telling a human story. In Nyuki's story, there's the same coming of age issues that all of us face: the uncertainty of adolescence, the scary adaptation to the real world after the comfortable world of childhood, the death of a family member and eventually, facing our own mortality. But these issues are approached on a scale that applies to bees rather than humans. She doesn't attend bee elementary school and go to the bee prom and get a bee job... well, she does sort of get a bee job, I guess. But for the most part, the story parallels human development without mimicking it, as you would see in a Disney movie. The result is a whimsical story that's entertaining and easy to relate to but also scientifically accurate.
Hosler is a PhD, and his knowledge in this area shines through. Hosler is an assistant professor at a college, and his teaching experience shows, but I'm surprised some of his experience isn't more in the elementary school realm. He manages to impart the lessons with an eye toward pointing out the icky gross stuff (which kids are inexorably drawn to) or couching scientific fact and theory in mythical terms to make it seem like a story, not learning. Examples of this include the "world tree" story that Nyuki is told, a sort of religious mythology for bees that also serves to give a one-stop explanation of evolution and gives the bee's lives significance that people can relate to.
That ability to turn the mundane into myth is at the heart of this story. In this book, the life of a bee is not merely another lifeform going through the motions, but a hero's epic journey. Nyuki's struggles with learning the ways of the hive are as humorous and sometimes surprising as an adolescent's struggle with becoming an adult. And when she gets into the prime of her life, she faces a personal struggle to overcome her fear of the outside world and forage for the hive which sees her blossoming into a guide and teacher.
In art terms, Apis is deceptively simple. I say deceptively because there's not a great deal of detail in all the designs. There's plenty of work put into nature and into the bees, but they're not an overly complex lifeform to draw. Or so it would seem, until you realize that the creator has to somehow make these bees, which all look alike to most people, individually identifiable and also make us relate to them with no facial expressions. This is done by clever variations such as a broken antenna for Dvorah or slightly different eye and body shapes, as well as very carefully arranged dialogue and distinctive voice patterns which make the characters stand out.
Make no mistake, while the attention to science is admirable and the artwork enjoyable, the reason this book is so much fun to read is the characters. Hosler has a gift for dialogue, whether it be making us laugh or making us cry. Nyuki's bad jokes, and her mixture of a child's boldness and fear at the same time, make her instantly likable and identifiable with only a few words. Dvorah's stern but caring nature is the same way, and even bit players like brother Zambur or the queen get definition that sets them apart from the massive swarm. While some of my favorite moments were the humor, there's also dark and sad moments to this. A bee encroaching on the hive meets a rather gruesome fate, and Dvorah has to make a heroic sacrifice that makes a big impact on Nyuki. We're made to care about these characters as much as about the larger story of life that we're learning, and that's what makes the book work.
