Bessie Bee's Big Blunder
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I used to write for the children next door and that the younger one was particularly interested in things scientific. I was always particularly careful to get the science 'right' and tried to incorporate something memorable at the heart of the narrative.
Preparing myself for a 'bee' story, I discovered that bees never collect nectar and pollen on the same day. Bessie Bee's Big Blunder tells of the day when Bessie became confused and failed to take her pollen socks to school. It all has a happy ending, of course!
Many years ago when teaching linguistics, I learnt about the bees' waggle dance. To communicate the location of a good source of nectar, bees perform a figure-of-eight dance from which their fellow workers can determine the best direction to take. This was a very popular element in the tale!
All of this was excellent practice for when Clive Farrell commissioned Leafcutter.
All images and texts are subject to copyright 2018
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