The first in a Northwood resident’s acclaimed fantasy children series is being reprinted with new, detailed illustrations from the author himself.
Republished on February 14, the first book in The Butterfly Bee Lady series, The Butterfly Bee Lady and the Bee was a huge success upon its initial release in 2017.
Now, five years later, it’s getting a special reprint with 19 illustrations created and drawn by the book’s author, IG Oliver.
The magical tale has received rapturous reviews from fellow children’s authors, such as Ffion Jones, who said the story is “a magical fantasy story full of adventure that keeps you hooked from the beginning.”
IG Oliver was born in Northamptonshire in the 1960s, but after training to be a chef in Derbyshire, a job working for King Hussain of Jordan in London sent him travelling all over the world, from Moscow to Los Angeles and was given prize at the Kremlin, by no less than the Queen Elizabeth II herself!
But it was in Connecticut, working as a private chef on a rancher’s estate, where Oliver got his inspiration for his book.
“I walked through a forest and came to an opening, to a small pond, it was sunset, I sat in the grass with a can of beer cooling off.
“As the sun disappeared, as though by magic rising up from the tall grasses appeared hundreds and hundreds of fireflies, all surrounding me, glowing literally in my face and around my whole body.
“It was an amazing sight I’ll never forget; It was like being in a true fairy-tale. Or a movie set, but with real animation, Not CGI, but real.”
The new edition of The Butterfly Bee Lady and the Bee will be available on February 14, as published by Ventorros Press.
Photo Credit: IG Oliver
A wonderful children’s book of magic, adventure and heroism. Brilliantly written and illustrated, a proper fairy-tale adventure, for kids aged 7 to 11 and adults. Over a hundred pages of great reading chapters.