A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 356

Picture Book: Love is a Handful of Honey 

Author: Giles Andreae

Illustrator: Vanessa Cabban 

Summary: Aspects of love over the course of one day are imagined in rhyming verse from the point of view of a young bear and his family and friends. Loving actions vary from leaping out of bed to being tickled, playing hide and seek to watching a butterfly tap on a toe, and hearing a bedtime book to whispering good night to the stars.  

Hanna’s Comments: There’s a lot to talk about here with little ones. Helping them understand that love is a BIG CONCEPT is at the heart of this book. Understanding that loving words and actions are varied and bountiful is a crucial foundation for living in a community of faith. Claiming love in attitude, gratitude, and cooperative living helps children understand how many ways their own feelings and behavior can be loving to self and others. Be sure to talk about God’s love for us as demonstrated here and find examples in these pages of how we can, with all that we are, demonstrate our love for God and others. These are the great commandments we have been compelled to live!

Original Publisher & Date of Publication: Orchard Books, 1999

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 2 and up, Toddler and up

# of Pages: 24

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: None at present 

PBT Category: Pre 2K

PBT Topics this Book connects with: abundance/bounty, action, affection, belonging, blessings, bonds/connections, caring/tending, communication, community, companions, cooperation, dependence/independence, encouragement, family, friends/friendship, God’s nature, gratitude/thanksgiving, helping, home, love, nurturing, parents/parental love, play, pleasing God/the Shema, presence, relationships, response to God, unity, wonder 

Scripture Connections: Love the Lord your God… (Deuteronomy 6:4-5); love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18 & Matthew 7:12); love is patient and kind (1 Corinthians 13:4); let all you do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14); we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of young children who are learning the many ways love for God, self, and others can be expressed and felt.