I Like Bees, I Don’t Like Honey

Children and parents were asked by the author of this picture book what things they liked and what they did not, and the answers here are wonderfully imaginative, sometimes sad and other times funny and original.  Pages of glowing watercolour paintings show us children with speech bubbles over their heads telling us exactly what they think while they dance, hop, skip, paint or are very much otherwise employed.  It’s a joyous scene, and every so often there are two pages of rhymes about what specific children like or don’t like:  ‘Mei likes painting and making a mess, she doesn’t like washing up – or wearing a dress!’  Some of the speech bubbles are moving, those such as: ‘I like taking my time.  I don’t like being shouted at.’ Or ‘I like playing on my own!  I don’t like night time.’  And some are very funny:  ‘I like butterflies.  I don’t like sitting down because my bottom goes flat.’  The theme of the story is that everyone is different, and this difference is also made plain by the fact that the children are of many hues of colour, there are spectacles much in evidence, and one child uses a wheelchair.  Inclusion is an important part of the story, as well it should be, and the message is so gaily and deliciously made in text and picture that both parents and children will delight in it.