Friday, January 8, 2010

Review (Book) - Little Honey Bear and the Smiley Moon by Gillian Lobel


I freely admit, the only reason I picked up this book was because I read a critique on MotherReader's blog informing me that this book was full of glitter. I don't think I've read more than one book that has glitter anywhere besides the cover, and with the popularity of glitter around our library, I knew I had to see what the fuss was about.

"Little Honey Bear and his friends set off to visit the moon, but getting there is more difficult than they thought - until Mother Bear shows them how to find it." (inside jacket flap)

You can tell the author isn't from America, because who in the U.S. uses the word "cross" anymore? If you are going to use this book for storytime, I recommend replacing "cross" with "mad", or some other synonym you know the children will understand. If you are reading the book to your own child, or choose not to substitute a word for "cross", be prepared to define the word. I'm certainly willing to try this book for storytime when we read books about winter in a couple weeks; however, I am a little concerned that all the glitter might distract the kids (especially the girls) and I'll have to hear "oOoOo" every time I turn a page, or "awww" when I get to the few pages that have no glitter. After all, I was disappointed when I turned to a page that didn't have glitter.

It is hard to find a lot to critique about this book. I have mixed feelings about the title - sometimes it sounds normal, sometimes it just doesn't roll off the tongue right; the inside jacket flap is misleading - (*spoiler*) Mother Bear doesn't really show Little Honey Bear and his friends how to find anything; and I can't put my finger on it, but something is off about the alignment of the text - some pages just read very choppy as a result of the line breaks.

Amazon recommends this beautifully illustrated book for ages 4 - 8.

My Rating:

*On a side note, the bear and bunny on the cover look really familiar...does anyone else think they've seen these two (or illustrations very similar to them) before?

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