Another very English book, the second in the Belinda Bee series. A new Spring arrives and Belinda is shocked to discover she has to swarm away with the old Queen Bee. The swarm travels through the countryside, having many adventures, through a long hot summer, meeting and making friends with different animals, including Russell the Rooster, Maureen the Milk Cow, Peggity the Pig and Bathsheba the moor land sheep, while desperately searching for a new home, until finally, and much to a very frightened Belinda's relief, just as the cold winter is about to dawn they find themselves back in their old orchard with their caring beekeeper, Mrs. Watson about to catch them and give them the home they so badly need. This book is a sequel to Belinda Bee's Busy Year, and is written for children and their adults, to continue the interest in honey bees and is an explanation of swarming in story form.
The final chapter is simply written and factually supported by photos from the author's own apiary, so that after reading the story to the children the parent can answer the questions that their children are bound to ask, or the young ones can themselves study it and discover the story of swarming, how and why it happens.
The author hopes it will be a book that both parent and child can enjoy, while together they learn about bees and honey. It is meant to be interesting, entertaining and pretty to look at.
My Godmother Rusty Wise lives in the heart of North Yorkshire. Sitting in her cottage garden she was inspired to write her second childrenOs book about bees.
She enjoys riding her Arabian horse, Shoshanna on a pleasant hack through the countryside and looking after those wonderful bees in the orchard at the side of the house – under the apple tree. Hopefully Rusty's bees will continue to make that delicious honey and inspire yet another book.
-Harriet