The Bee Line: read-along
The Bee Line as a read-along for the projector: 17 pages, 2206 words, level 13, grade 8.
Page 1 of 17
The unfamiliar neighbors arrived on the first warm Saturday in May with a moving truck, a dog, and a girl approximately Omar's age. The girl carried a white wooden box off the truck herself, gradually, with both arms, as though it were a wedding cake. Omar watched from the upstairs window. The box went to the top corner of their garden, where the ground rose toward the hill and caught the morning sun, and the girl set it on two concrete blocks and stood back with her hands on her hips. Then she pulled a plug of grass out of a slot at the bottom, and nothing happened for a minute, and then the air above the box began to fill with small moving dots. The dots made a sound like a refrigerator with musical ambitions.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 13, Grade 8
- 17 pages, 2206 words, about 16 minutes aloud
- A story, a little spooky
Related
About The Bee Line
Forty bees have taken over Omar's birdbath, and his little sister is too scared to go outside. When the hive turns out to be impossible to move, Omar and his new neighbor Wren must outsmart the bees' invisible map, just before the whole sky starts to roar.
Words to preview
- veil (VAYL)
- mesh face cover
- colony (KOL-uh-nee)
- bee family
- trellis (TREL-is)
- plant frame
- barrier (BAIR-ee-er)
- blocking wall
- bewildered (bih-WIL-derd)
- totally confused
Questions that fit any book
- What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end?
- Which page was your favorite? Why?
- How did the main character feel at the end? What tells you?
Questions
How long does The Bee Line take to read aloud?
It has 17 pages and 2206 words, so about 16 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is The Bee Line?
Level 13, Grade 8. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; level 13 sits at grade 8. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library. It is not copied from a published book.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.