For Georgia teachers and media specialists
Real bees.Real building.Real Georgia standards.
Books for grades K to 7, written by a North Georgia beekeeper and builder who has done the work he writes about.
- 7 booksready to order today, grades K to 7
- GAGeorgia standards listed for every book
- Real hiveswritten by a working North Georgia beekeeper
- Visitsin person across North Georgia, virtual anywhere
Start here
Find books for your grade
Every book is written for the grade it serves, and each one comes with classroom extras built right in.
Jill the Honeybee Adventures
Picture books that follow one bee through every job in the hive. Students learn the insect life cycle and how a colony works together.
Birdie and Six
A story where measuring matters. Birdie and Granddad's talking folding rule measure, build, and fix things on the farm.
Inside the Hive
Middle school life science through the honeybee: body systems, adaptation, and how a whole colony works like one living thing.
Classroom-ready
The lesson extras are already inside
No extra workbook to buy. The teaching pages are printed right in each book.
Jill the Honeybee
In every book, grades K to 2
- Jill's Bee Facts: true facts about real honeybees
- New Words from Jill's Hive
- Talk About It Together questions
- Try It with Jill: a hands-on activity
- A secret message to decode
Birdie and Six
Grades 2 and 3
- Granddad's Workbench practice pages
- Pen puzzles and Six's Secret Message
- How to read a folding rule
- New Words pages and Talk About It questions
- Answer key and a note for grown-ups
Inside the Hive
Grade 7, in every chapter
- Scientist's Corner: the big science words, explained
- “Bee Fact,” “Myth or Fact?” and “Try It” activities
- Honeybee Words vocabulary box
- A 20-question quiz with answers and a glossary
- A For Teachers page matching chapters to standards
Jill the Honeybee Adventures
Grades K to 2 · ages 4 to 8Seven picture books, seven real jobs inside the hive. Children follow Jill from the day she hatches to the day she flies out as a scout, and learn the honeybee life cycle along the way.
- Book 1The Day Jill Became a HoneybeeOn Amazon
- Book 2The Day Jill Became a Nurse BeeOn Amazon
Book 3The Day Jill Became a Builder BeeOn Amazon
Book 4The Day Jill Became a Honey MakerOn Amazon
Book 5 · NewThe Day Jill Became a Guard BeeOn Amazon- Coming soonBook 6The Day Jill Became a Forager
- Coming soonBook 7The Day Jill Became a Scout Bee
Paperback and Kindle now; hardcover editions planned for library shelves. Spanish and side-by-side bilingual editions are in the works for dual-language classrooms.
Birdie and Six
Grades 2 and 3Birdie and Six Build the Quail Hutch
Every Saturday, Birdie helps Granddad on his farm above Lake Allatoona. This Saturday, his old folding rule wakes up and says hello. With Six to guide her, Birdie learns to measure twice, finds the perimeter, and discovers that the biggest pen isn't always the best one.
- Measuring in inches and feet for a real job
- Perimeter, mistakes, and fixing them
- Practice pages and answer key in the back
Kindle now. Paperback coming soon, with more Birdie and Six books planned.
Inside the Hive
Grade 7 · life scienceThe Honeybee Book for Curious Kids
A real beekeeper opens the hive and shows middle schoolers what's going on inside. Readers meet the queen, the workers, and the drones. They follow a bee from egg to adult, crack the code of the waggle dance, and find out what a hive does all winter.
- A pen-and-ink illustration opens every chapter
- Easy to read: about a 5th- to 6th-grade reading level, so readers who struggle can still keep up with 7th-grade science
- A For Teachers page shows which Georgia standards each chapter covers
Paperback, hardcover and Kindle.
Meet the author
Jack A. Ross writes what he lives.
Jack A. “Tony” Ross got into bees because he was scared of them. Years later, he builds his own six-sided Warré hives, catches swarms all over his county, and has had more than one bee yard torn apart by bears. He has been in the construction trade since 1983, and he served eight years on his county school board.
He believes every kid deserves a chance to see how amazing the natural world is up close.
Honest alignment
Where our books meet the Georgia standards
We would rather tell you plainly what is still being checked than claim more than a book delivers.
| Book | Grade | Georgia standard | How the book fits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside the Hive | 7 | S7L2 Cells, tissues, organs, and body systems | The bee's body systems, including the honey stomach and its enzymes, explained chapter by chapter. | Aligned |
| Inside the Hive | 7 | S7L5 Inherited traits, adaptation, and natural selection | How bee adaptations and instincts help the colony survive. | Aligned |
| Inside the Hive | 7 | S7L4 Interdependence in ecosystems | Bees, flowers and pollination as a give-and-take relationship. | Being checked |
| Jill the Honeybee, Books 1 to 7 | 2 | S2L1 Life cycles of living organisms | The honeybee as an insect life cycle children can follow from book to book. | Supports |
| Jill the Honeybee, Book 6 (Forager) | 2 | S2L1.c An animal's role in pollination | Jill carries pollen from flower to flower as a forager. | Coming with Book 6 |
| Birdie and Six Build the Quail Hutch | 2 | 2.MDR.5 Measure lengths in inches, feet, and yards to solve real-life problems | Birdie measures and builds a quail hutch with a folding rule. | Supports |
Standards listed are from the Science Georgia Standards of Excellence (2016) and Georgia's K-12 Mathematics Standards (2021). These books are meant to support classroom teaching and reading, not replace a core curriculum. This chart is updated as each book is reviewed.
Ordering
For schools and libraries
Order through Amazon with the ISBNs below, or email us about class sets, library copies, and district orders.
| Title | Format | ISBN | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Day Jill Became a Honeybee | Paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 in. | 979-8-953316-24-8 | Available |
| The Day Jill Became a Nurse Bee | Paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 in. | 979-8-953316-02-6 | Available |
| The Day Jill Became a Builder Bee | Paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 in. | 979-8-953316-25-5 | Available |
| The Day Jill Became a Honey Maker | Paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 in. | 979-8-953316-43-9 | Available |
| The Day Jill Became a Guard Bee | Paperback, 8.5 × 8.5 in. | 979-8-953316-51-4 | Available |
| Inside the Hive | Paperback, 6 × 9 in. | 979-8-953316-46-0 | Available |
| Inside the Hive | Hardcover, 6 × 9 in. | 979-8-953316-47-7 | Available |
| Inside the Hive | Kindle | Not needed for Kindle | Available |
| Birdie and Six Build the Quail Hutch | Kindle | Not needed for Kindle | Available Paperback coming |
Class sets and district orders
Send us the titles, quantities, and your school or district. We'll reply with pricing and timing.
Ask about class setsAuthor visits
In-person visits across North Georgia and virtual visits anywhere. A real beekeeper, a real hive story, and time for questions.
Request a visitBooks that teach, written by people who've done the work.
Tell us your grade and what you're teaching. We'll point you to the right book.