Honeybee's Busy Day - Richard Fowler > Reviews > Go On A Journey With The Honey Bee.

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Absolutely
Story	Good
Characters	Good
Listenability	Pretty compelling but not addictive

Advantages:	A great interactive book for young children
Disadvantages:	Try not to lose the bee !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is an excellent, interactive book for young children.

~ Richard Fowler ~

I have only ever seen two books by this author and both are highly interactive and great for young children:

• Honeybee's Busy Day
• Ladybug on the move (in which children can move a ladybird through the garden, meeting a variety of bugs)

~ Honeybee's Busy Day ~

On the front cover of this book there is a little plastic wallet, strategically placed on a large flower, in which sits the bee.

The concept behind this book is that children take this cardboard bee with them through the book, simple but very effective!

The story begins on a warm sunny day and Honeybee is gathering nectar from the flowers to make in to honey. She flies from a red poppy to a blue cornflower, on to a yellow iris.

She then meets some ducks who ask him to come for a swim bu she's much too busy.

She then meets a frog who offers him a fly, but again she replies that he's "too busy".

On her travels, Honeybee meets a squirrel, a rabbit and a dog, but to each, she replies "I'm too busy!"

Until finally she reaches her hive and crawls inside. Her friends offer her some honey, saying that she must have been very busy!

~ Style and Format ~

The text on the pages, twirls up and down, reflecting the path of the bee as she flies through the air, collecting nectar.

Each page has a slot cut in to it through which the bee can be passed through on to the next page.

This book is great for children from 2 - 3 upwards.

The front of the book states:'Remove honeybee from cover....follow the written line.... and pop in the slot....'

~ Illustrations ~

These are very detailed and the pages are very 'busy', full of lots of interesting things to spot in the gardens that the bee visits.

~ My verdict & Educational Value ~

I really like this book along with Richard Fowler's ladybrid one for a number of reasons:

• It really is highly interactive as children are encouraged to follow the lines of the text with the bee from the front of the book, this is great for hand-eye co-ordination.
• Great for fine motor skills as the reader is encouraged to push the bee through the slot in to the next page. Very young children may need some help with this as it can be a little tricky!
• I particularly like the way that Richard Fowler has included the names of the flowers, like red poppy, blue cornflower and yellow iris, he hasn't just said flower.
• It's great for early scientific knowledge, e.g the Honeybee is collecting nectar from the plants to make honey.
• The last page is inside the beehive with the honeycombs, again great for early science / nature.
• It's a useful tool for naming different animals and spotting different minibeasts, from squirrels to ladybrids and dragonflies.

Just take care of the bee, I've had my copy for a couple of years now and still haven't lost it!

~ Price ~
ISBN 0-385-40498-0 usually £4.95 but amazon are selling used and new copies from £2.99. Just watch out for P&P charges.

This is a lovely book for any young child and it's great to have over the summer months so that children can spot things in and around their gardens or parks that are in the book!