A Buzzing New Book Trailer

Bees and book trailers—two of my favorite subjects! Today I’m thrilled to showcase the melding of both in my new picture book trailer, “In the Trees, Honey Bees! – A Picture Book Trailer” featuring my rhyming, nonfiction picture book published by Dawn Publications in 2009.

I wrote In the Trees, Honey Bees because of my late beekeeper father-in-law, Eugene Mortensen. Whenever I visited his home in Tracy, California, he was always doing something with his honey bees—he had over 300 hives! If he wasn’t scraping the wax off stacks of wooden frames, he’d be moving hives from one field to another, “extracting” honey in his garage, or going out on calls to catch menacing swarms. One day, my husband and I jumped in his bee truck with him and watched as he captured a buzzing clump of bees that had swarmed on the front gate of the Altamont Raceway.

Honey bees were so fascinating, I decided to do a little research even though I figured I knew all of the bee basics—bees gathered pollen and nectar, performed a mysterious dance, and made honey, right? To my surprise, I discovered honey bees were more fascinating than I ever imagined. For example, who knew that bees did different chores as they matured in the hive? I didn’t. Who knew that bees gathered water and tree sap in addition to the familiar nectar and pollen? I didn’t. Who knew that honey bees used tree sap to seal cracks in their hive? I didn’t. And I was sure most people didn’t know either even though there were lots of books about honeybees on the shelves.

So I wrote something for children in rhyme that would capture the fascinating facets of these familiar insects in a new way. I coupled each rhyme with more complex text when I realized the rhyming text couldn’t say everything I wanted to say. I felt as if I was opening a window to a world most people didn’t even know was there. (The picture above is one I took at my friend's bee hives. It also appears in the back of the book.)

Today, my book trailer opens another window into this book, and the fascinating life of wild honey bees.

If you have a moment, take a look, “like it,” and add a comment.

Let's spread the buzz! :-)