Overview
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. When an overworked beehive inspector seeks a detection dog to protect bees from a deadly disease, she teams up with a lonely dog who needs a loving home and a purpose. Cybil Preston needs a dog. But not just any dog. She needs a dog to help her with her work. Cybil is a beehive inspector who works to ensure the health of commercial beehives in Maryland. Hundreds of hives are shipped across the country as farmers need bees to pollinate their crops. Without the bees, there wouldn't be foods like apples, almonds, and strawberries. But the bees must be healthy to be shipped, and there's a deadly disease, foulbrood, that is highly contagious. If even one infected hive left the state, entire bee populations could be wiped out. Dogs, with their ultrasensitive sense of smell, can sniff out even the tiniest scent of foulbrood in a hive. A well-trained, focused detection dog can inspect 50 hives in 10 minutes. Work that would take Cybil an entire day to do. When Cybil meets Mack, an unruly and lonely dog, she wonders if she has found her canine colleague. Can rambunctious Mack be trained to meet this important challenge? Readers of all ages will enjoy this warmly illustrated true story of Cybil and Mack as they work to save the bees.
Full Product Details
Author: Stephanie Gibeault ,
David Hohn
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Imprint: Sleeping Bear Press
Dimensions:
Width: 28.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 23.10cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9781534113329
ISBN 10: 1534113320
Pages: 40
Publication Date: 01 August 2025
Recommended Age: From 6 to 7 years
Audience:
Children/juvenile
,
Children / Juvenile
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
Would-be animal trainers will find this engaging addition to the working-dog shelf of particular interest-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" (8/2/2025 12:00:00 AM)
Gibeault's text nicely balances details about beekeeping and dog training with plenty of action and emotional appeal. Hohn's soft illustrations in an earth palette bring dog Mack's lovable, if at first unruly, personality to life.-- ""The Horn Book"" (8/1/2025 12:00:00 AM) The book is a short fun and informative story about Cybil and her adoption of the energetic dog Mack and the time, effort and love to get Mac trained for Maryland Beekeepers. Illustrations are colorful and connecting to the story and the reader.--Jerry Hayes ""Bee Culture Magazine"" (10/1/2025 12:00:00 AM) Would-be animal trainers will find this engaging addition to the working-dog shelf of particular interest-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" (8/2/2025 12:00:00 AM)
Author Information
Stephanie Gibeault is an award-winning freelance writer who lives just outside Toronto, Canada. As both a biologist and a professional dog trainer, she's been swarmed by monkeys, grumbled at by gorillas, and covered in fur and drool. Now Stephanie writes books for children that feature tooty humor or science. She's usually found reading her latest work out loud and laughing at her own silly jokes. She hopes her neighbors can't hear! Visit her at stephaniegibeault.com and on Twitter @GibeaultWrites. David Hohn is the illustrator of Just Like Beverly: A Biography of Beverly Cleary, which garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
