The Summer We Saved the Bees

For Wolf, saving the planet means first saving his family from self-inflicted disaster.

Wolf’s mother is obsessed with saving the world’s honeybees, so it’s not too surprising when she announces that she’s taking her Save the Bees show on the road―with the whole family. Wolf thinks it’s a terrible plan, and not just because he’ll have to wear a bee costume―in public. He likes his alternative school and hates the idea of missing weeks of classes. His teenage stepsister doesn’t want to leave her boyfriend, and one of his little half sisters has stopped talking altogether, but Wolf’s mom doesn’t seem to notice. She’s convinced that the world is doomed unless ordinary people take extraordinary action. It isn’t until the kids take some drastic action of their own that she is forced to listen when Wolf tells her that dragging the family around the province in a beat-up Ford panel van may not be the best idea she ever had.

Robin Stevenson is the award-winning author of more than thirty-five books of fiction and non-fiction for kids and teens, including the picture books Pride Puppy, Pride Colors and A Hug on the Wind, and the novel The Book of Jupiter. Her books have won the Silver Birch Award, the Sheila A. Egoff award and a Stonewall Honor, and been finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards and many reader’s choice awards. Her work has been translated and published in more than ten countries, including Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Robin was the Book and Periodical Council of Canada’s Champion of Free Expression for 2022. In 2023, she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. She is also a co-founder of Canadian Authors and Illustrators Against Book Bans. She has degrees in philosophy and social work, and worked for ten years as a social worker and counsellor before becoming a full-time writer. Robin lives on the west coast of Canada with her family.