UK artist Beans on Toast recently released The Fascinating Adventures of Little Bee, a combo children’s book series and album. I’m a sucker for a series. More so when it comes to kids’ books. Call me a completionist, or maybe I just like the look of it on a nursery wall, but there’s something rewarding about having a full run of a children’s lit series. What’s better is when they’re a series you’re genuinely excited to read with your kid.

I was delighted by the disarming charm of the folksy collage-meets-illustration artwork, the handwritten lettering, and the stories themselves. The titular character sports a colander hat, bee-coloured shirt and shoes, and an ever-present look of delight and wonder. The art feels whimsical and accessible, as do the stories. Every book has something different to offer: “Little Bee Goes To The City” is a reflection on diversity, while “Little Bee Goes To The Woods” serves up the wisdom of patience as its setting’s lesson. Each destination offers up similarly well-coupled themes, and each of them is clever, effortless, and fun to read.

Folk singer and author Beans On Toast says in writing the series, “I feel like kid’s books are very similar to folk songs. They’re simple, to the point, with a message about being kind to the world and its people.” To that end, they succeeded in telling simple songs, but there’s so much more to them. For starters, each story is a different song, literally: every book has a different way of playing along to the book in a tune, whether it be guitar, ukelele, piano or any of a myriad of other ways to play along to the rhythmic, sing-song lilt of the words.

In addition, each book has a “Where is Bee?” section, asking kids to search for Little Bee among a scene consisting of characters from the previous pages. Equally clever is the addition of interesting facts about the theme in each book – this is great for kids who are older and able to grapple with the interesting trivia about each setting. It means there are other ways to keep kids engaged. And as with all books for kids, if your young ’un doesn’t like a particular section, it just takes a flip of the page to move on to the parts they do.

It also needs to be said the colours of the various books are visually pleasing. Each chromatic selection is underscored by textures appropriate to each theme (e.g., pockmarked earth rendered in luminescent yellow for “Little Bee Goes To The Moon,” clouds swirling under carnation pink on “Little Bee Goes To An Imaginary World,” etc.), and the variety of colours on display really lets the series stand out.

The Fascinating Adventures of Little Bee is a brilliant series, with classic topics ranging from dinosaurs to the moon being offered up to readers with a range of ways to engage and play along with each book. It’s a series I’ve purchased for my little guy, and I look forward to sharing it with him time and time again.

Book Series:

“To The Sea”
“To The Woods”
“To Town”
“To The City”
“Back In Time”
“The Rainbow”
“The Moon”
“To Space”
“To An Imaginary World”
“To A Gig”

Author: Beans On Toast, Jaime & Lilly
Publisher: Play on Words Publishing
Release Date: December 1, 2022
Format/Length: Paperback, 290 pages
ISBN-10: 1399936824
ISBN-13: 978-1399936828

Beans on Toast ‘The Fascinating Adventures of Little Bee’ book series

There’s something about lost media that stirs something in us these days. How often do we get frustrated when something we search for doesn’t immediately materialize with that Wiki blurb, some pics and links to socials? Unless that grid of related info pops up, we feel we’ve suddenly stumbled into the ethereal realm, the Flammarion Engraving writ digital. That experience, though, is one of the few remaining remnants of a past we can never again replicate. In the absence of fact, we’re left with the word of others. This bygone reliance on word-of-mouth folklore is how Aug Stone’s The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass (grab your copy here) unfolds, speaking in tales within tales, a cornucopia of simulacra that gets more and more layered.

The tale begins like phyllo pastry in a cold oven; things heat up as the narrator and his friend prod witnesses about the origins of the titular band in their Hero’s pursuit of BCA’s long-lost vinyl, Live In Hungaria. I have one quibble with Stone’s story: how long it takes that metaphorical oven to heat up. The witticisms, puns and wordplay that saturate the beginning chapters act like harsh feedback at the beginning of a track, challenging the reader’s endurance while the story gets its bearings.

But once the narrator and co. finish covering the lengthy background behind the band’s name, the tone and humour lock into place, and the narrative shines. The wordplay and asides suddenly gain meaning, and with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it urgency, the plot and humour achieve balance, and the book reaches a calibre that only gets more powerful as it unfolds. Just a few chapters in, I realized: The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass reads as if Douglas Adams wrote it if he was raised in a record shop by Monty Python and Kurt Vonnegut. It’s an exposition by way of music culture; comedy by way of absurdism; narrative via forgotten tales and distant memories.

Along the way are countless musical references that delight with their obscurity: Cabaret Voltaire, Cleaners From Venus, Fugazi, even a nod to Aquarius Records along the way, all while Stone progressively turns the dial up on the intensity of Buttery Cake Ass’ fateful demise. A slew of fictional bands, artists, musicians, and acts and even a hilariously robust discography are sprinkled throughout the mix. The layers of false media and fake references, on top of all the obscure ones, lend legitimacy to them, fooling the reader (at least this one) on more than one occasion. “Nigel Dinks? Never heard of him, let’s see who- ah,” I mumble as I search for a musician who never existed. Well done, Stone – well done.

By the time the story reaches its conclusion, a theme emerges that I suspect only those who are starting to approach middle age and older will appreciate. The dreams, hopes, and lofty ambitions of artists met with the chaos of life’s circumstances hit home. Chances are good that you and I, reader, will go through this life without becoming famous, and crucially, as the book points out in its closing pages, that’s perfectly fine. Go and live your life, play your heart out, and follow where your heart takes you. If it means you become a wildlife preservationist instead of a big-time record producer or a session musician who gets to have regular work but live in relative obscurity, that’s great.

The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass thumbs its nose in the face of the attention superstructure, delighting in the experience of sleeping under pinball machines and releasing records that no one outside of a handful will ever hear. “Get over yourself,” Aug Stone tells us, “and chase after the things that delight you and capture your imagination.” Do it without care for the result, do it with wild abandon. Do it, and be content with telling the stories you make along the way to the select few who will listen. You reach a time in your life when you get a chance to go from reckless abandon into an obscure, fulfilling life, and if you listen closely, you can hear your magnum opus beneath the static. Who knows, maybe a couple of kids some day will grow obsessed with what you managed to do, and you’ll be humbled when they fight for decades to get their hands on something you made once upon a time.

Author: Aug Stone
Publisher: Stone Soup
Release Date: February 9, 2023
Format/Length: Paperback, 270 pages
ISBN-13: 979-8218098865
ASIN: B0BLK872SC

Today we dive into the children’s book If I Were The Moon, out via Schiffer Publishing. There are fewer requirements more consequential than writing and illustrating when it comes to kids’ stories. Unless you can illustrate your own stories with masterful ease like Sendak or Seuss, as a writer, you need someone who can translate your vision and make it transcend the words. So, it’s especially vital, as a musician getting one of your songs turned into a children’s book, to get an artist who can not just convey the essence of the words but the spirit of the music as well.

Jesse Terry’s good fortune was being connected with Jacqueline East, one of the most wholesome, positive illustrators in the game today. Watercolours are magnificently hard to pull off, especially with clean lines, and East pairs this mastery with depictions of children, animals, and nature that are at once whimsical and magical.

It’s this balance between whimsy and fantasy that makes East’s rendition of Terry’s heartfelt ballad “If I Were The Moon” so wonderful. Moving from earth to moon and back again is a tried-and-true theme, but East’s incorporation of animals and nature give the settings and mood a dreamlike, ethereal quality. The result is at once both wholesome and positive, and along with the natural journey it takes towards sleep, it’s a powerful soporific.

It also happens to pair well with the original song itself. The pacing of the pages and words lend themselves to Terry’s original, touching piece. As well, the imagined images work so well with the tune that it feels as though it was deliberately written with pictures in mind. This, to me, is the sign of a perfect synthesis of two very talented creatives. Awash with gorgeous watercolour illustrations, fanciful scenes and heartfelt words, this children’s book is destined to become a fixture by bedsides in years to come.

Author: Jesse Terry
Illustrator: Jacqueline East
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Release Date: March 28, 2023
Format/Length: Hardcover, 32 pages
ISBN: 9780764365706
ISBN-13:  978-0764365706