Q&A with Toni Buzzeo

  

 

 

Toni Buzzeo is the author of the new children's picture book Buzz!: Being Brave Around Buzzy, Stinging Insects. Her many other books include Light Comes to Shadow Mountain. She lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Buzz!?

 

A: I don’t remember being especially afraid of buzzy, stinging insects as a child, but oh my! When my two grandchildren, who live upstairs in our two-family East Arlington, Massachusetts house, were very young, they were mightily afraid. Bees, wasps, hornets. All while living with a Nonna who encouraged the pollinators in our yard.

 

Something had to be done! Of course, the first “something” was to try to calm the children enough to be quiet, still, and watch the bees at their work.

 

Their grandfather, my husband who had died a few years earlier at our farmhouse in Buxton, Maine, had been a beekeeper, after all! Their father had grown up with beehives out back by our veggie garden (on our 35 acres). I didn’t want Ken’s legacy of loving and nurturing pollinators to be left behind at that farmhouse.

 

Slowly and with compassion, I taught them to be curious—and respectful. But, of course, as a writer, I’m always spinning story ideas, and when I mentioned this idea, of a story wrapped around stinging insects, to one of my editors, she was so excited, as her own two children were terrified of stinging insects too.

 

That editor didn’t end up acquiring the manuscript, nor did the next one who loved the idea, but as you see, I found Grace Maccarone at Holiday House who helped me to create a splendid book!

 

Q: What do you think Joe Cepeda’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: This is a fascinating question. I was recently recording a podcast (Grounded in Maine). Amy and I were talking about Buzz! being a nonfiction book.

 

It actually didn’t start out that way, but the first editor I wrote the book with led me away from my more lyrical, fictional account of a young child visiting a grandparents’ yard abuzz with pollinators (yes, I see that smile of recognition that just flashed on your face!).

 

And she was wise. What I needed to write, if I was to calm down my grandchildren and her children, was a not-so-subtle guide to not being afraid—a nonfiction book.

 

However, when you look at the cover, and when you open the book, what you see is the cast of fictional characters Joe has created in his lively, appealing, and inviting art. So, Joe brings the element of imaginary characters to my nonfiction text.

 

These are kids who are following the safety rules around stinging insects:

Stop! Be very quiet. No yelling.

Keep hands still. No swatting.

Move sloooowly and caaaaalmly away. No running.

Watch the ground while stepping away. No zipping around.

 

Even beyond following those rules, these kids turn up their courage. They stay and watch. The curious kids Joe has created use their science eyes to watch the insects. Do they get stung? Yes, one of them does, despite the safety rules. But they know just what to do to help make that sting less terrifying and painful. (Note that the book acknowledges that some people have serious bee allergies.)

 

Joe’s kids are the stand-ins for the readers of this book, showing young children just how safe and interesting life can be around stinging pollinators. He’s also done such a superb job of depicting the insects in the book, accurately and in un-threatening ways.

 

Q: The School Library Journal review of the book says, “Buzzeo commendably destigmatizes these bugs, especially the bees, which are crucial to Earth.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I loved that line in the School Library Journal review. It’s exactly what I set out to do, though I doubt that most children or parents would think of bees as being “stigmatized.” It’s precisely true, though, isn’t it?

 

Because they can sting (When they are scared! When they are protecting themselves or the hive!), we are frightened of them and want them gone. Yet, according to the Bee Conservancy, bees pollinate one third of all our food.

As Buzz! makes so clear:

And if there is no food,

well, you see the problem—

no you,

no me.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: As a degreed librarian, research is among my top 10 loves. Some days, I admit, it is number one. Researching the book was, therefore, a deep pleasure.

 

But despite all of the sources I read, both in print and online, the videos I watched, and the nature photographs I studied, I could not have revised the text to be completely accurate without the help of amazing ecologist, consultant, and speaker Dr. Nick Dorian https://nicholasdorian.com/, to whom Buzz! is dedicated.

 

He read every word of the book many times and studied the illustrations in each iteration as well. I asked him so many questions and he answered every one. He even chose the three specific species of stinging insects used in the book: the European honey bee, the Eastern yellowjacket, and the bald-faced hornet.

 

Did you know that all hornets are wasps? Did you know that bees don’t have ears, but they can feel sounds? Did you know that wasps (and hornets) are superhero predators who bring pesky insects (like those that attack flowers and food plants) home to feed their babies? I didn’t either until I wrote this book!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: What I say is likely to surprise you! In 2023, I published my first middle grade novel, clearly mixing things up in a career that, at that point, had included exclusively picture books—30 of them. Light Comes to Shadow Mountain won the 2024 Cardinal Cup Award (given by the Virginia Library Association for historical fiction).

 

Now I needed a new writing frontier, so betwixt a few new picture book manuscripts, I am working on my first young adult novel. And I’m writing it in verse, which is completely new to me and takes me back to my roots as a poet in high school, college, and in my 20s. It’s lovely. And challenging. And exciting.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think as we move toward increasing urbanization and less open-spaces-living, kids become more fearful of aspects of the natural world that seem threatening. Buzzy, stinging insects are among those frightening features of nature.

 

Like many things humans are afraid of, these creatures become less scary when kids know more about why they behave as they do and what they have to offer us. Knowledge, curiosity, and respect go a long way to allaying those fears. That’s just what I hope Buzz! will encourage.

 

Thank you so much for inviting me back to Book Q&As, Deborah, to talk about this latest book!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Toni Buzzeo.