Humble Bumble product reviews

Miss Five and Mr Two could not have been more delighted to review this book with me. They are already into bumblebees because their current favourite song is called Baby Bumblebee so the choice of this book was perfect for them. While the story proper was pitched at exactly the right level for youngsters, their mother was interested in the information page at the end of the book. She even learned a few new things herself!

There is a nice feel to the story which offers a strong message about the importance of teamwork. Humble Bumble always wants to be the best, but this is usually at the expense of other bees who should be her friends. Children can have this ambition too; part of the value of going to school each day is to learn to interact with peers and encourage everyone to participate. It is important for them to learn that boasting and pushing oneself forward, marginalising others in the process, is not a civilised action. The book includes a well-known whakatauki which sums this up beautifully: Kaore te kumara e korero ana mo tona ake reka (the kumara never talks about its own sweetness).

Everyone loved Craig Phillips' colourful illustrations. The cheeky expressions on the little bee faces are hilarious, and Humble Bumble's smug expression when she orders Bumble Brie to put down her pollen load was priceless. Next time I pick up a bumble bee I will look at her face to see if I can make out her expression. (It is actually rare for a bumble bee to sting - unlike wasps, they are commonly docile creatures who do not seem to mind being handled gently.)

All of us appreciated the way that te reo Maori was incorporated seamlessly unto the story. This offered a non-threatening path to acquiring new words and phrases, and their repetition with each subsequent reading of the story helped to embed them into the family's everyday language. Their mother commented on learning one unfamiliar word - puehu (pollen) - and I have to admit that this word was new to me too. Words were either translated in situ or at the bottom of the page where they first occurred, but additional support was provided by a separate glossary at the end of the book. I did smile when I saw that one whakatauki was slightly different in the glossary as the last word "takitini" was replaced by "takimano". Not that it really matters as they mean pretty well the same thing in this context and it does not detract from the overall value of the book.