Honeybear Stories - The Ebook Anthology

Honeybear Stories is the complete series anthology of 13 short stories for children aged between 4 and 8 years old (with a bit of latitude at either end), available as an ebook. Every chapter contains full colour pictures of the animals featured and text is set in an enlarged font to encourage children to learn and improve their reading skills.

The stories are written in a charming retro style, harking back to an age when children’s fiction was more innocent. Suffused with comedy, love, loyalty and generosity, they introduce children to a host of animals. Most – although not all – live together in an atmosphere of kindness and cooperation.

The principal character is Honeybear herself, an orphaned bear living alone in a forest after her mother mysteriously disappeared when she was a cub. She is admittedly a rather lazy bear, happy to doze a great deal in between eating lovely snacks she finds in the forest. But one day, her largely uneventful but lonely life is interrupted by a stranger in the forest – a young gorilla who has escaped from a zoo.

After meeting many of the forest’s other inhabitants and indeed having several adventures, Honeybear makes a startling discovery – that she might be able to find her long-lost mother. Of course, her best friend Gerumph is always by her side, to help and encourage Honeybear when she needs it.

As their new quest gathers pace, Honeybear becomes more adventurous and empowered, even to the point of taking unlikely risks. Their journey leads the friends out of the forest into new, and perhaps dangerous territory, full of surprises, challenges and strange encounters, leading to a dramatic climax full of twists and turns in which the outcome remains in doubt almost to the final page.