I was given a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Beedog: An Insect Discovery in Portugal is a really beautifully illustrated, educational story book for younger children. Children will be delighted with this adventure story which starts with a day trip to the beach, but will also learn a little about Portugal and wasp varieties, as well as researching a topic using a computer.

The main characters are six-year olds, Manny and Cora. We follow them as they discover and observe the behaviour of a flying insect. They don't know what it is but are determined to find out once they get home.

We watch them using a computer to search the web and identify the strange insect. Through trial and error, on their third attempt, they discover the real name of this insect, and then find out a bit more about it to tell their class the next day.

At the end of the story is more information about the insect - introducing more complex vocabulary, such as "vibrational sounds", and pictures of other types of wasp.

There is also a link to free printable resources available from the author's website which encourages searching for information on the web, imagining and drawing a picture, a playground activity, a geography test, a wasp identification line-up based on information in the book, and finally a colouring activity.

I highly recommend this book as a Key Stage 1 children's storybook and learning resource.

My thanks to author Addie Broussard for a free digital copy of this book to review. ( )

This book is an excellent addition to any classroom library. My students were interested in this book because they love learning about Science and insects. It's a book that the kids continued to read independently after we talked about it. ( )

I just read this to my children and they loved it. They range in age from 4 to 9. They all loved how it had science extras and facts about the wasps. It was a perfect way to present information to kids! ( )

This would be a great book for summer reading or September to bring back summer adventure memories and inspire writing. As a grade two teacher I love the combination of fiction and nonfiction. The back section of the book with interesting facts related to the wasp makes it that much easier to learn more without having to research. The web page access to a related video and work sheets, to inspire writing, makes this book the whole package for a teacher who is searching for an inspirational start to the year. I would love it for a variety of ages of grandchildren and especially for those who love insects and we always have a couple of those a year in each class. Thanks for the opportunity to review this book and I hope to do more. ( )

I accepted this book from Two Umbrellas via Librarything to read and review.
It is a beautiful book with fun illustrations that kids will appreciate. They can have fun seeking out extra items in the pictures.
The voice of the text is appropriate to young children and not boring for adults to read.

My only change would be to make the girl narrating look a bit younger in some of the illustrations. In a few does she look more mature than age six. (Although I also have a young niece who looks older than she is.)

It was also fun for us, as non Spanish speakers, to see unusual words in the pictures.
I like the explanations and extra resources. ( )