Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield, ill. Jan Spivey Gilchrist

In a dual celebration of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day, I figured the logical connection came in the form of Eloise Greenfield’s Honey I Love. But which version? Turns out that there’s the original book, illustrated by the Dillons (Leo and Diane, obviously) and then the titular poem from that book was republished as a book in and of itself a bit later. Now initially I envisioned this episode as a dual book review via Kate. What became almost immediately clear was that the best book to consider (for our particular podcast) is the more recent 2003 version of this poem. So even though I myself was born in 1978, and the original Honey, I Love was from the same year, we’re going to look at the slightly newer version here today. Why did we choose it? And why do we think it’s worth noting? We discuss my issues with Ash Wednesday, baby teeth, messed up babydolls, and much much more.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Here’s the original cover of the book. Did you know it was officially a Reading Rainbow book? As you can kind of see, it’s a tiny book:

“These are accurate depictions of adult teeth when they’re coming into your mouth and they’re going all over the place.” I gotta say, Kate knocked it out of the park with that description.

As Kate says, this evokes Ariel on her rock, waves crashing all over her. Pure joy.

In the book, the narrator says that her friend’s doll’s face is “a mess”. And truth be told, there’s an interesting messiness to this illustration you’d never find in the original Dillon illustration.

Okay… you tell me. What year does this say to you? When is this book supposed to have taken place?

Our best bet at a continuity error. She goes to bed and then she wakes up. Same bedspread?!?

This last image in the book is the part that baffles us. “A mysterious way to end the book.” Angel? Fairy? Soul? What the heck is this little creature supposed to be?

Kate Recommends: The Olympic women’s hockey team at this time.

Betsy Recommends: My newest book! Out this week for librarians, it’s Racial Literacy in Libraries, written by me alongside many amazing co-writers. Trust me, there is not much out there that is like it today.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate