To Bee or Not to Bee?

What a great way to celebrate this years What's Buzzin' at your library theme by hosting a spelling bee! Huh? You ask. According to the film and publishing industry this seems to be the season of Bees. Some of you may have read Myla Goldberg's 2001 novel THE BEE SEASON or viewed the 2005 movie. Others may have seen the 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary SPELLBOUND that profiled the lives of 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants with all of its intense and surprising comical moments. Perhaps you have been inspired to visit NY to see the current off-Broadway musical hit THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. And if none of these names sound familiar to you, this summer would be a great time to introduce yourself and your community to the latest development on all things related to this growing national phenomenon. Over the last 20 years, participation in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC has doubled. With major sports channels like ESPN filming such dramatic footage of a 13-year old contestant fainting before judges only to regain composure to spell "a-l-o-p-e-c-o-i-d correctly in the 2004 competition, it's no wonder this academic event has spurred the interest of new viewers. Such viseral reaction also presented itself when a Rhode Island school spelling bee was canceled last month. Both parents and the community voiced their disappointment and concern so fervently that the school reversed its decision.

This summer creative librarians will have an opportunity to celebrate this American pastime in both film and literature. Today opening in theaters nationwide, AKEELAH & THE BEE (PG) features a story of a young inner city girl who overcomes her fear of ostracization and self-confidence to compete in the National Spelling Bee. Distributed by Starbucks Entertainment and Lionsgate films, this family movie will more than likely spark the reading and vocabulary building interest of beginning and avid readers this summer. This past Wednesday, I had an opportunity to preview the movie and I have to give this endearing film a thumbs up in reiterating the themes of literacy, family and community. This movie makes "..learning cool" as I overheard a young boy say as I walked out of the theater. *-) I look foward to seeing the response of kids and families this summer and am anxious to see what programs you might create from this response as we prepare for our theme. In the meantime, I would like to offer a motley list of young adult fiction and children's non-fiction titles revolving around the theme of (school) peer pressure, academia, self-empowerment and identity to include on your bibliography:

James McGuire's American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds (2005)

Matthew & Jennifer Rosenberg's The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook: 1,001 Questions & Answers To Help You Win Again and Again (2002)

Michael Smith's World Trivia: The Book of Fascinating Facts: Culture, Politics & Geography (2002)

Edward Averett's The Rhyming Season (2005)

David Lubar's Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie (2005)

Evelyn Coleman's Born in Sin (2001)

Martha Southgate's The Fall of Rome (2001)

Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl (2002)

Gordon Korman's Jake, Reinvented (2005)

Eliot Schrefer's Glamorous Diasters (2005)

Mariah Frederick's Crunch Time (2005)

Nan Willo Cappo's Cheating Lessons (2003)


If we can prolong movie-goers amusement this summer through our library programs, let's have fun in the process! To Bee or Not To Bee isn't the question--it's the answer.