Wednesday Wee-view: Honeycake - A Circle Of Trust

The Wee-view for today is on Honeycake: A Circle Of Trust by Medea Kalantar. 

This sweet read-aloud book follows Nala, an inquisitive and creative character most kids will easily relate to. When she accidentally breaks an item belonging to her Papa, Nala feels awful but isn’t sure what to do. Her parents show what building trust looks like and how their family is a safe place to always tell the truth. Now Nala must decide how she can help keep the family’s “circle of trust” strong and growing. 

The author did a nice job of simplifying the concept of truthfulness and trust into an understandable and entertaining children’s story. These kinds of conversations should be ongoing from the time our kids are babies, so this was a fun way to reinforce those ideas. I also appreciated the emphasis that parents need to first create and model an environment of trust if they want their kids to absorb that message into their own thinking and behavior. While the activity of building the tower to represent trust was a good illustration, I would have liked to see the parents demonstrate it more organically. Perhaps after having ruined something of hers or each other’s and then apologizing. The randomness of this part of the story made it feel too convenient. My only other criticism of the story itself is that some dialogue felt unnatural and a bit preachy. Simplifying words like “communication” and “honest” to terms such as “talking” and “telling everything that happened”, or at least defining them within the story would be more kid-friendly. I would have preferred even more showing rather than telling. 

I liked Nala. She wasn’t too grown-up; she acted the way kids act. I appreciated how her tummy hurt after she broke her dad’s favorite mug, but she didn’t know that was why. I also liked that it took her a little while to connect the lesson with her own situation. 

The pictures were creative and engaging. The bright colors, facial expressions, and use of detail were nicely illustrated. There were a few that were repeated. Though spaced out enough in the book so as not to be boring, I really would have loved to see different art on each spread, especially if it is a book that I’m going to be reading to a little one multiple times. 

Overall, this was an interesting and enjoyable book. I give it 3 out 5 stars.