Jaime Lea and the Bumblebee [Kindle Edition]

Thank you so much for sending me a copy of Jaime Lea and the Bumblebee. The children eagerly opened the envelope yesterday afternoon and insisted that I read it to them immediately. I must say we sat down as a family and thoroughly enjoyed it - the children particularly liked the rhyming element to the prose. I have a girl aged 3 and boy aged 4, both of whom were thoroughly engrossed in the story throughout and keen to see 'what happens next'. I will also say that there were a couple of chuckles from my little boy at certain points through the book and he has already asked that I read it to him again which I think says it all. My children were both very taken with the illustrations especially of the insects and the 'magical fairy' as my daughter says. In fact my daughter was flicking through the pictures after breakfast this morning pointing out the bees, the butterflies, the wasp, the ladybirds and of course the fairy. On a more personal note I loved the part of the book where Jaime says that given the choice to be anyone in the world he would choose to be himself. I think it was particularly beautifully written and brought a tear to my eye. A beautiful message that was echoed when my children were playing in the garden later on having read the book and Ryan told his sister 'you can be a princess and I'll be a monster' and Kayla simply replied 'no Ryan I want to be just me' I am sure the book will be well thumbed in our household and many more.
Hayley De La Mare

I very much loved the ideas and concepts in this story. I liked that there was an element of magic and gentleness to it.

The language is simple and explores the sights and sounds of the garden. The use of rhyme by the author assists in giving the story it's rhythm and allows it to flow from each event to the next.

What stands out for me in particular, is the author 's choice of main character. I like that the author has chosen a child in a wheelchair for this adventure. (I think more books should feature children from all walks of life as the main character more often ) When faced with the opportunity to be someone else and to be free of the wheelchair, Jaime explains that he would only want to be himself. This is such an important message to young children. It's wonderful to discover a book that offers this kind of positive imagery.

There are many other messages within the story, an example of such is when Jaime is a bumblebee and helping the others to collect pollen; he reflects on how it feels good to work hard and help others.

When it comes to the illustrations, I have to be honest, I thought computer designed illustrations would be 'blocky' and feel cold (I am rubbish at describing what I actually mean by this, I guess I just mean that they would feel 'flat') but the illustrations in this story are carefully layered giving them depth and warmth. They are vibrant and they are also the kind of pictures that you need to look at again and again to discover extra, interesting details. I was delighted that the fairy was hidden on each page as the story progressed (a detail we missed to begin with, but a fun discovery!)

I also liked that the text was surrounded by pretty, blossom images, it was if the reader is looking into the garden.

I personally would love to see this story in schools. (It could be used to support a variety of topics - it gave me plenty of ideas! Creative writing, garden displays, insect topics etc) The positive messages, coupled with the imagery would compliment any story shelf as well as the curriculum; focusing mainly on personal and social development; encouraging children to reflect on what it means to be themselves.

Overall, the story is put together with a lot of care and thought and the pictures that accompany it have just the same attention to detail.

This is a beautiful story, told in rhyme, with lovely colour illustrations. It's a heartlifting little book for adults to read to children, and great for children to read for themselves, it's the first illustrated kindle book I've downloaded, and the quality is fantastic. I'm looking forward to reading the next story on kindle when it is published. it's good value, a nice tale, and it presents disability in a straightforward yet positive way that young children can easily deal with.