I really liked this book for two reasons. First, I liked how the writing was in a rhythmic pattern. For example, "Is that a bee? He went, 'Buzz! Buzz!' He looks like a bee. Why, yes! He does." It is very appealing to listen to. Second, I liked how the illustrations enhanced the story. The dad had a hard time finding the right tree and he went to many that did not have bees but had other things. The author chose not to name the different things, so the reader has to rely on the pictures to know that he found a bird or a skunk depending on the page. The animals also have expressions to show that they are not happy that this bear disrupted their tree. The big idea of this story was that adventures can be fun, but sometimes it is just easier to get something from a store. ( )

I do really like the Berenstain bears, and this was one of those stories from my childhood that I read over and over again. Basically the bears run out of honey and are asked to go and get some more from the store, but Papa bear decides that he will save some money and go on a honey hunt by following a bee. However, as can be expected, his knowledge is far from perfect. Basically he thinks he knows how to hunt for honey, but he makes assumptions that quickly turn out to be wrong (including the assumption that the bees will simply let him take the honey without a fight). As such, he ends up doing the thing that he should have done at the start, and that is buy the honey from the honey shop.
What an explanation the modern economic system. Basically the reason that we have shops is because we are too stupid to actually go out and get it ourselves. Sure, people do hunt for sport, and people have their own vege gardens (or even bee hives) but in general when we want something we go to a shop so that we don't have to fumble around looking for these goodies for ourselves. However, there is also the case that a lot of our produce has been manufactured, which means that we can have the goodies without having to go and make it ourselves (though once again, people have hobbies).
It is interesting to see how professionalism works. Basically it is like Adam Smith's explanation of the nail factory, where people would be charged with different parts of making the nail so that they would become incredibly skilled with making their aspect of the nail, and that the nail could be made a lot faster than when one person had to make the nail themselves. In a way that is how professionalism has developed, namely so that we all have access to the products and that people have been trained and are skilled in that particular process.
Mind you, these days everything is becoming automated, which means the people who were skilled in one aspect must now go and reskill so that they can get themselves into another job. While I do not have anything against automation per se, the problem is that more people are losing their jobs to automation than they are able to find new jobs. Then there is also the aspect of offshoring, which is because people can perform unskilled work cheaper overseas than they can perform here. Mind you, the problem with offshoring is that people want to speak to people in their own country who can clearly understand their own language, however that is something that is not necessarily all that possible in a multicultural society like Australia. ( )

The Big Honey Hunt is the first Berenstain Bears book, from way back in 1962. It tells about how Papa Bear and Small Bear (who would later be called Brother Bear) go out to get some honey. Mama Bear has told them to go to the store, but Papa Bear thinks that buying honey is for suckers–-he'll go get it from a honey tree. Of course, this has predictably (for those who know Papa Bear) disastrous results.

One thing I noticed when reading this is that the art style has really changed over the years. The bears are really very furry in these early books, with lots of individual hairs poking out from them, leaving them quite fuzzy looking. Compared to the well-groomed, styled look they have in later books, it's quite different. It's not just how furry they are, though–the characters are pretty unrecognizable. If they didn't wear pretty much exactly the same clothes over the years, you probably wouldn't guess that they were the same bears.

(The rest of this review is posted on my blog.) ( )

This book was really funny. It was funny how the dad wanted to be a man and show his son how to get honey, but he kept trying to find honey in the wrong kind of trees. After a long day of searching and searching, the dad got honey from the honey store and told his son that it was the best kind. You could have your class brainstorm ideas of ways to get honey besides going to the store to hear their creative answers. You could also have them draw pictures of bees and honey trees. You could read this book when you are teaching about bugs and bees. ( )

This is one of the earlier Berenstain Bear books, and it shows. Despite the cover, the bears on the *inside* of this book are less stylized and cutesy than the bears in the newer books. Also, the book is more of an early reader, it rhymes and is nowhere near as wordy as the newer, $4 books. (Tell the truth, I like all these older Berenstains better!)

The little bear and his dad go out to get honey, but of course they eschew the honey store *right next to their house* and go on, surprise, a honey hunt.

You can already tell that this Will Not End Well. After a series of predictable mishaps, they end up (predictably) buying honey at the store after all, much to the delight of the little ones.

This one is a *little* long for toddlers. Save it for the older pre-readers, or the ones learning to read. ( )