Learning Together With Honey

Learning Together With Honey {a review for Penguin Random House}

“Honey” by David Ezra Stein is a fantastic and gentle story of an eager bear who wakes up from his long winter nap with thoughts of, you guessed it, honey!

On the surface, “Honey” is simply a fun book to read to your little one.

There are wonderful illustrations (generally honey-colored) and rollicking text. Your young one will be happily engaged by this cozy tale.

But there is so much that this story teaches as well.

Patience – your child will learn alongside the bear to be patient and wait for the bees to finish making the honey.

Metaphors & Similes – examples include

a meadow as gold as honey,
a stream as clear as honey, and
berries bursting like honey.

This is an important skill for children to learn – it develops their language use and also teaches an understanding of pattern recognition.

Inductive Logic – bear struggles several times as he misreads the signs and signals of it being honey time. Then he realizes that what he needs is to be patient and wait.

Activity to do with your children to develop memory (and have fun)

Read the story through aloud to your child, pointing out the pictures together. When you get towards the end of the story where bear finds the honey, “warm, golden, sweet, clear, slowly flowing, spicy, aromatic, sparkling with sunlight,” stop and ask your child if she remembers what else bear found that was warm.

Then you can go back together and find the picture of bear being reminded of warm, golden, and sweet honey when he saw the sun.

After that you can flip back to the end where the bear finds the honey and ask your child what bear saw that reminded him of how honey was clear and slowly flowing. If she doesn’t remember, turn back to the picture of the bear looking at the river and you can discover it together!

You can work your way through all of bear’s descriptions of honey and link them to the pictures in earlier places in the book.

This can be an activity you do with your child every time you read this wonderful book.

About the Author

Award-winning children’s author and illustrator David Ezra Stein was born in Brooklyn, New York. His works include Interrupting Chicken, Leaves, Monster Hug!, Tad and Dad, Pouch!, and Ol’ Mama Squirrel. In addition to winning the Ezra Jack Keats award in 2008 and a Caldecott Honor in 2011, Stein’s books have been named to several major book lists, such as Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, Kirkus Reviews’ Editor’s Choice, and School Library Journal’s Best Book. He lives in Kew Gardens, New York, with wife, Miriam, and their son, Sam.

Book Summary From The Publisher

This sweet companion to David Ezra Stein’s award-winning Leaves celebrates the joy of savoring something you love.

Bear is ravenous when he wakes up from his winter sleep and has one thing on his mind: honey! Alas, it is too soon for honey, so Bear tries hard to be patient. The world around him is waking up, too, and he soon remembers all the other things he loves, like warm grass, berries, and rain. He’s almost content, until, one day, he hears a welcome buzzing sound . . . and finally it is time for Bear to delight in the thing he relishes above all others–and it is as warm, golden, sweet, and good as he remembered.