The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees

Educated meets H Is for Hawk in this extraordinary memoir about the author's unusual childhood growing up in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric honeybee keeper on the coast of Big Sur, and the lessons she learned from the bees.

An unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places, and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.

Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May. Everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.

May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. The bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and survival, and it was during this pivotal time in May’s childhood that she learned to take care of herself. Part family story, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is a rich and lyrical memoir of a girl who journeyed into the hive—and found herself.