About Linda
Author illustrator, beekeeper, and entrepreneur Linda P. Della Rosa is passionate about protecting honey bees and our other precious pollinators.
Linda was raised on Cape Cod in the 60s and chose to return in the 90s to raise her three children in her favored home of Eastham. She taught science in middle and in high school there for 18 years before retiring to Western Massachusetts in 2017.
While teaching, Linda became a hobby beekeeper on the half acre where she lived. She frequently gave presentations to children and young adults about the importance of caring for honey bees. Linda loves seeing the excitement on children’s faces when they learn about honey bees and the urgent need to protect them
Always a “busy bee,” Linda also started a small, all-natural skin care business made from only high quality oils and butters, as well as her honey and beeswax. Her business is called Bee Mindful Skin Care. She sells her products throughout Massachusetts in retail specialty stores, and artisan fairs.
But Linda had another bee in her bonnet: She’s always wanted to write children’s picture books. In 1995, Linda was privileged to meet and talk to her favorite children’s author/illustrator, Barbara Cooney, at a local bookstore. Although Ms. Cooney was a famous author and quite elderly at the time, she spoke with every person who waited in the endless line. Barbara Cooney urged Linda to pursue her dream, no matter how long it took. Thanks to Ms. Cooney, we now have Beeatrice.
Linda continues to pursue and interweave all of her ventures. Each book includes a package of wildflower seeds specially selected for honey bees. Customers are always happy and eager to plant these seeds for Beeatrice and her family.
Published in hardcover in December 2020 ,”Beeatrice the Cape Cod Honey Bee”, is the first in a series of three children’s books about Beeatrice. The first tells the story of her young life and how she meets her hive family. The second book of her adventures, “Beeatrice the Cape Cod Honey Bee Learns Her Chores”, published in 2023, carries on her life as she learns all her chores as a young house bee. The third book, “Beeatrice the Cape Cod Honey Bee Goes Foraging”, is in the process of being published, and will be available in early 2024.