WINNER OF THE 2026 CHILDREN’S WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR FICTION
The Handmaid’s Tale meets Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now in this startling dystopian YA, described by the author as a love letter to her daughter.
In a world where bees are at risk of extinction, one girl fights for her own survival.
Imagine a world where honeybees have died out. It’s a patriarchal world where famines are rife. It’s a world without art, without books, without plays. Girls are sent away from home, forced to pollinate crops by hand with brushes and to marry as soon as they can. Inhabiting this world is Jess and her friends Cass, Deva and Ruth. But even if one fourteen-year-old knows that the system is dangerous, can she really stoke a revolution?
Incredible new voice in YA literature from a recognisable Welsh adult author. Strong environmental message – it has been predicted that if honeybees were to become extinct, humankind would have only four years to live. Hand pollination is already practiced in China, as an estimated 80% of China’s native wild honeybee population has already been lost. Empowering female friendships.
Caryl Lewis said: ‘As a beekeeper, I am acutely aware of the interconnectedness of everything and have long been frightened of how we, as humans, set ourselves apart from nature. We do not seem to understand that in destroying nature, we destroy ourselves. My daughter is growing up in what feels like a much more hostile environment facing climate instability, the rise of misogyny and the roll back of women’s bodily rights. I wanted to comfort and empower her and let her see that our greatest weapon in a floundering world is the imagination.’
