The Big Sting by Rachelle Delaney

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Description:

Eleven-year-old Leo is an "armchair adventurer." This, according to Dad, means he'd choose adventures in books or video games over real-life experiences. And while Leo hates the label, he can’t argue with it. Unlike his little sister Lizzie, Leo is not a risk-taker.  So when he, Lizzie, Mom, and Dad leave the city to visit Grandpa on Heron Island, Leo finds all kinds of dangers to avoid — from the deep, dark ocean to an old barn on the verge of collapse. But nothing on the island is more fearsome than Grandpa himself — Leo has never met anyone so grumpy! According to Mom, Grandpa is still grieving the recent death of his wife, a beekeeper beloved by everyone on the island. Despite Leo's best efforts to avoid it, adventure finds him anyway when Grandma’s beehives go missing in the dead of night. Infuriated, Grandpa vows to track down the sticky-fingered thieves himself... with risk-averse Leo and danger-loving Lizzie (plus a kitten named Mayhem) in tow.

General Content:

Language: 0/10- Little to no derogatory language/ references.

Alcohol & Drugs: 0/10- No mentions of drugs or alcohol.

Violence & Gore: 1/10- While searching for the bees, Leo's grandpa speeds, trespasses, and backs into a car. He is also said to have 15 years of unpaid parking tickets.

Sexual Content: 1/10- No sexual content. Quick mention of a character's “mom’s girlfriend".

Age Recommendation: 9-12 years old or 4th-6th Grade

Parent Guide:

-Leo’s grandma had suddenly passed away months prior, so they went to visit his grandpa to bring some comfort.

Ch 2:

-Leo eavesdrops and finds out that his grandpa is “not a big fan” of his dad.

Ch.4:

-Leo recounts all his mom’s been through this year, his grandmother's death being top of the list.

“No one saw it coming, not even mom, who’d talked with her on the phone hours before it happened…Grandma had said goodbye, gone to bed, and just didn’t wake up. It was most likely a stroke, Mom had explained…”

Ch. 6

-Leo’s Grandmother’s beehives got stolen from the property. In disbelief, they went out to check, “then Grandpa broke the silence with a big, fat curse word- one of the worst words Leo knew”.

Ch. 9-10

-Leo’s grandfather drives crazy around the town: speeding, not signaling, etc, making Leo nervous.

-In searching for the stolen hives, Leo’s grandfather investigates people’s yards without them knowing, and he also accidentally hits an old car on the property and flees.

Ch. 12

-Leo, his sister Lizzie, and their grandpa agree to “not yet” tell their parents about their adventures while finding the bees. They don’t want to trouble or worry their mom.

Ch. 13

-Leo runs into his new friend Sofi on the ferry, she states that her “mom’s girlfriend lives on Porpoise [Island] too, so we’re staying with her for the weekend”.

-Sofi tells Leo and Lizzie that Mo (their grandpa's friend) is a criminal. They speculate on what he may have done.

Ch. 14

-While in the car, they pass a sign for a wine tasting tour, and Lizzie reads the sign aloud.

-We find out that Grandpa's friend Mo is a sweet older lady. Confused, Lizzie asks if she truly is a criminal. Mo is surprised and says that she made some mistakes nearly 50 years ago. We later find out that her boss asked her to cover up evidence at her job, being “young and not very brave,” she did, and later got charged for withholding evidence.

Ch. 17

-Lizzie and Leo decide not to call their mom and dad, despite running into trouble, they want to finish their mission of finding the bees alone.

Ch. 18

-Lizzie and Leo get lost while trying to find the bees; they find a road and decide to hitchhike. The car slows to a stop; thankfully, it’s their parents.

Ch. 21-22

-Grandpa, Lizzie, Leo, and the bumblers (the beekeeping group in town) find the bees, and the thief admits her crime.