The Berenstain Bears and the Big Honey Hunt

Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Berenstain Bears and the Big Honey Hunt is a bouncy rhyming story for 5 year olds about a dad who is absolutely sure he knows best.

What happens

The honey pot is empty. Mama sends Dad and Small Bear to the store to get some more. Easy.

But Dad has a much better idea. A smart bear doesn't buy honey from a shop. A smart bear follows a bee to its tree!

So off they go. Tree after tree looks just like a honey tree, and feels just like a honey tree. Every time, Dad is completely certain. Every time, it's the wrong kind of tree (one of them comes with a very nasty smell).

And when they do finally find the bees, the bees are not at all pleased to see them.

The fun is all in the rhyme and the repetition. "How, Dad, how?" comes round again and again, and so does "Wrong kind of tree!" By the third tree your reader will be shouting it with you. It's written in short, simple lines, so a child who's starting to read can have a go at plenty of it on their own.

The real joke is that Small Bear can see what's happening long before Dad can. Children love being cleverer than the grown-up in the story. Dad keeps telling Small Bear to watch his "smart old Dad", and your reader will be giggling because they know exactly how it's going to go.

And where does the best honey come from in the end? You'll have to read it to find out, but Mama might have had a point.

It's a story about just the two of them, Dad and Small Bear, so it's a lovely one to share with a dad or grandad who's happy to be the butt of the joke. There's nothing scary here, beyond some very cross bees and a quick dunk in the water.

What to read next

If Dad's confidence makes them giggle, The Bike Lesson has the same pair again. Dad gives Small Bear a brand-new bike, and then insists on showing him how to ride it first, lesson after disastrous lesson.