Mooloolah Valley beekeeper celebrates sweet award

Matthew Middleton: “I am just so thrilled to think that our little self-published book is spreading the word about the importance of looking after the world’s native bees.”

Mooloolah Valley native beekeeper Matthew Middleton is celebrating a second international award for his illustrated children’s book Princess Bee and the Boy.

He and his wife (and editor) Juliet were in bed with their morning cups of tea last week when they saw that Princess Bee and the Boy had won a Silver Nautilus award. Mr Middleton said it was a lost cause trying to explain to their house guests the real reason behind the hoots and hollers and delighted hysteria issuing from the bedroom.

The US-based Nautilus awards receive hundreds of entries from around the world each year, and are awarded to “books that made us think, make us improve, and make us aware”. This win for Princess Bee and the Boy comes on top of the bronze Moonbeam award collected last year, which is given to books that “bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and are dedicated to supporting childhood literacy and life-long reading”.

“I am just so thrilled to think that our little self-published book is spreading the word about the importance of looking after the world’s native bees,” Mr Middleton, who runs native bee business Beezotted, said.

Mr Middleton shares the honours with illustrator Jade de Baecque, of Broome, and book designer Glenbo Craig, of Gympie.

As part of their school and community shows on native bees, the Beezotted team performs the story, accompanied by didgeridoo. In recent months Beezotted has performed at schools and daycare centres around the Sunshine Coast and run a sold-out series of library workshops for adults on making homes for native solitary bees.

• Copies of Princess Bee and the Boy are available at https://beezotted.com.au/shop/ and also at Rosetta bookshop in Maleny and the Little Book Nook in Palmwoods.