Say Please to the Honeybees

All Ages

Birth - 12 months

by Susan Ross
Illustration by Megan Stiver

Say Please to the Honeybees continues the adventures of Violet, the sheep. Taking honey from the bees without saying "please" lands Violet in a heap of trouble. Violet is plagued by bees seeking comical revenge, spiders wanting tasty treats, a hungry horse, a gaggle of geese and a snippy shopkeeper. Children will love this humorous story with its adorable ending. Learn how to make a bee (instructions included). Check out Susan's other book The Great Bellybutton Cover-Up.

Age: 4 Year-olds | Title: Say Please to the Honeybees | Author: Susan Ross | Publisher: Susan Ross Publishing

Why we chose this book

Although Violet the sheep has award-winning wool, she still has a lot to learn about manners if she wants to stay out of trouble! When Violet sees her first beehive, she decides to sample the honey without asking first. She ends up with the sticky sweetness all over herself, leading to many different insects and animals deciding to sample her tasty wool without asking first. The large bold sentences overlay vibrant ink and watercolor pictures that fill the backgrounds to the edges. The story is a great read with lots of alliteration and rhyming; "The creepy, crawly creatures took out their teensy-weensy spoons and began stuffing their teeny tiny mouths with the tasty treat."

Violet's antics almost always lend themselves as a conversation starter about manners. Had she asked the bees before swiping their honey, they may have offered her a serving size that wouldn't have ended up all over her, or at least could have helped her later if the honey still covered her wool and other animals were trying to get a taste without permission. If you want to keep the story active and funny, you and your child can try to think of other 'outfits' Violet could have ended up in because of the things sticking to her honey-covered body. For example, what would she have looked like if shed rolled around in grass? How about leaves? The book also ends with a fun poem about bees. Perhaps you and your little one can make a game out of coming up with your own poem about bees, or about things that are violet, or even about farm animals wearing sweaters (like Violet ultimately does)!

When my three year-old friend Dano and I read this story and he saw Violet guzzling down honey from a hive, he got excited and said, "Like Winnie the Pooh!" Dano and I ended up talking about bees after the story and why they are good - although you shouldnt try to touch them because getting stung can hurt. Dano agreed that he "liked honey a bunch" but said he would "never steal it from the bees."

--Audra

About the author

Susan Ross grew up in Toronto, Ontario and now lives in London (nope, not England; still in Ontario). She have a B.A. in psychology and a B.Ed. with a specialty in primary education. Her background in education and her quirky sense of humour are the perfect tools for writing childrens books.

She started her writing career later in life (from her perspective) and she loves it! Susan loves using her imagination, creativity and humour to create books that both delight and educate children. She loves teaching so Susan takes great pleasure in guiding children through the process of publishing a children's books during her author presentations.

As a craft enthusiast, Susan enjoys devising crafts for each of her books so children have an activity that relates to the story. She finds it so rewarding to read her books to children and watch their expressive little faces as they sit mesmerized by the story and pictures.