PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 23, 2012

he Berenstain Bears Honey Hunt Helper by Jan and Mike Berenstain is a level one beginning reader book in the Living Lights series. The good deed scouts decide to help Papa find the wild honey tree so that he can enter the wild honey in the honey contest. They follow a bee all over, and help Papa as he bumbles through the journey. In the end, they gather up the honey for the festival and learn that it is good to help the elderly.

The good deed scouts are Brother, Sister, Lizzy and Freddy. They like to find a good deed to do every day, which is a great thing for kids to see. Freddy quotes three Bible verses, but no reference is given in the story, or anywhere else in the book. I’m not a huge fan of random Bible quotes without verification of where specifically it came from, but that’s just me. If you’re going to put the Bible in there, you should cite where, so that your reader can then dig them up in his Bible.

One thing that can be endearing or can really get under your skin is the incompetence of Papa. In this story, he gets stung by a bee, gets chased by a bull (with the cubs near), gets stuck in a bog, falls into a stream, and gets stuck on both a fence and a log. None of these things happen to the cubs. It paints Papa in a bad light, and since he is the only adult with lines, I think it could paint grown-ups in a poor way as well. However, this is nothing new, so if you don’t mind the bumbling Papa, then you won’t mind this book as well. The sight words were few, but there for the challenge. The sentences were simple, with no contractions. It’s a decent reader for your level one book worm.