Local author releases new children’s book ‘Bizzie: The Beat-Loving Bumbling Bee’ to help show youth the power of music

JoyWorks Publishing, the publishing branch of JoyWorks Networks Inc., has released a new children’s book, Bizzie: The Beat-Loving Bumbling Bee, by author Janet Lawless Christ, aimed at helping show youth the power of music. With a relatable and reassuring message for children, the book is based on a true story about bees that were rehomed from The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe. A portion of the proceeds will go to Guitars in the Classroom (GITC), a national nonprofit that supports highly-engaged student learning in public schools by training, equipping and inspiring teachers and school staff to play, sing, lead, compose and integrate music with academic instruction and social-emotional development. Downloadable Bizzie Bee lesson plans that accompany the book for kindergarten through third grade are being developed for at-home learning and will soon be available.

Author Janet Lawless Christ

(Courtesy)

“I wrote Bizzie after learning about how The Inn solved its bee situation in a humane way by relocating the bee hives,” said Lawless Christ. “For my first book, Nugget the Nomad, we partnered with Thrive Animal Rescue because the inspiration behind it was my rescue dog, Diego. For Bizzie, I was thrilled to partner with local music nonprofit Guitars in the Classroom because the story focuses on the power of music, and GITC has brought music into classrooms across the country and helps advocate for the importance of music programs in schools.”

This is the second book by Lawless Christ in a series of stories of human life, strife and dilemmas and how to find ways to thrive and survive those struggles as seen through the eyes of sentient animal characters, including pet dogs, bees, butterflies, earthworms, chickens, goats, homing pigeons, etc. Her first book was Nugget the Nomad: Adventures of a Yoga Dog, which tells the story of Nugget, a dog who is fostered by family friends after his owner hurts her back trying to break up an altercation between Nugget and his brother Eddie.

“Guitars in the Classroom is excited to partner with Janet Lawless Christ on the publication of her new book, Bizzie: The Beat-Loving Bumbling Bee,” said Jessica Baron, founder and executive director of Guitars in the Classroom. “Lawless Christ engages and educates her young readers by playing with the melody and rhythm of spoken language to bring nature, science and music together for both the bees and human bee-ings. Sharing this book out loud with children can be a musical experience all its own. We applaud her for giving children new ways of understanding bees and their bee-haviors and thank her for supporting our nonprofit to provide free musical training for teachers and students in public schools.”

Bizzie: The Beat-Loving Bumbling Bee was illustrated by Ryan Hernandez. The Bizzie collection is available for purchase and includes Bizzie: The Beat-Loving Bumbling Bee book, children’s facemask and Bizzie plush. The Nugget collection is also available for purchase and includes Nugget the Nomad: Adventures of a Yoga Dog book, children’s facemask and Nugget plush. For more information and to purchase, go to joyworksnetworks.com. For more information on Guitars in the Classroom, visit www.guitarsintheclassroom.org.