Honeybee's Busy Day

Rating:
Summary: My toddler loves this book!
Review: This book is great fun for my 1 1/2 year old. She loves to maneuver the honeybee through the pages. It is an innovative concept, and it works well. The only problem is that where the honeybee is pushed through the page, the page rips pretty easily. But the honeybee has stood up well.

Rating:
Summary: Colorful, fun book that is also a subtle teaching tool
Review: This was given to us as a birthday present for my then one-year-old boy. Immediately his brother, 4, commandeered it for himself and spent quite a bit of time that afternoon pushing the cardboard honeybee on her path and through the pages to the other sides to continue. Seeing me do this once was all it took to fascinate them both.

The honeybee, which is stored in a plastic pocket on the cover, starts on page one to follow a path of words that curves and turns across the spread to disappear behind a cleverly disguised cut into the next page. The flowers and objects are identified specifically, like "Iris" and "Cornflower", so kids do learn a little uncommon info for their age. I think that when they try to take over moving the bee for themselves (which is inevitable), they also learn good hand eye coordination skills. Best of all, the words are like a magic path that has direction, pacing and meaning. Clever!

I'm a big fan of children's picture books that are interactive because they work! Kids' attention will be riveted, they love to play with the book even when you're not reading to them, and they develop an understanding and appreciation of books. I remember cherishing Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar book myself at that age because it was just so cool. It made learning easy and fun. This book has a similar appeal, and I would recommend it to anybody whose children respond to that sort of thing.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

Rating:
Summary: Colorful, fun book that is also a subtle teaching tool
Review: This was given to us as a birthday present for my then one-year-old boy. Immediately his brother, 4, commandeered it for himself and spent quite a bit of time that afternoon pushing the cardboard honeybee on her path and through the pages to the other sides to continue. Seeing me do this once was all it took to fascinate them both.

The honeybee, which is stored in a plastic pocket on the cover, starts on page one to follow a path of words that curves and turns across the spread to disappear behind a cleverly disguised cut into the next page. The flowers and objects are identified specifically, like "Iris" and "Cornflower", so kids do learn a little uncommon info for their age. I think that when they try to take over moving the bee for themselves (which is inevitable), they also learn good hand eye coordination skills. Best of all, the words are like a magic path that has direction, pacing and meaning. Clever!

I'm a big fan of children's picture books that are interactive because they work! Kids' attention will be riveted, they love to play with the book even when you're not reading to them, and they develop an understanding and appreciation of books. I remember cherishing Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar book myself at that age because it was just so cool. It made learning easy and fun. This book has a similar appeal, and I would recommend it to anybody whose children respond to that sort of thing.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle