Picture book: How chocolate was made

A picture book is a literary genre that most often combines a short text and an illustration. They are usually aimed at children, but many can also be interesting for adults. This year, a very special picture book was published under the name of Epistola Publishing House, and it immediately caught our attention.

About the book, the author and the illustrator

The picture book that caught our attention is called How Chocolate Was Made, and it encourages children to not be afraid of being different, as there are many advantages to being different. The picture book was written by Mojica Podgoršek, a renowned Slovenian writer of short stories, fairy tales, fables and novels for teenagers. She also focuses a lot of her attention on stories for children with special needs - especially for children with reading and writing disabilities (dyslexia). The first Slovenian picture book of this kind (Medo resši každý zmedo) was nominated in 2008 for the Original Slovenian Picture Book Award.

The picture book How Chocolate Was Made wasillustratedwith pleasure and relishby children''s illustrator Maja Lubi, whose illustrations, pastel colours and magical imagination have a calming effect on children and conjure up a fairytale atmosphere.

Story

The story revolves around a little bee named Anna who felt she had to leave her home because of a secret she had. She knew how to make real chocolate with her honey! This is what made her feel different from other bees. She left her home and sought out the bee kingdom, where she tried to keep her special knowledge a secret. Every day, instead of contributing her honey to the communal store, she mixed it with cocoa she found in a nearby house and ate it all herself! Anna the bee successfully kept the secret of the chocolate until one day... Until one day, when the Queen asked her to make her a restorative drink. The bee immediately thought of her sweet and delicious chocolate and, despite her fears, prepared a glass of the drink for the Queen. At first, Anna was disappointed, thinking that she would have to leave this home too because of her secret. She soon found out that the Queen Bee was actually fascinated by her chocolate. She even wanted more! She immediately sent her worker bees to find the ingredients for this mysterious chocolate, but soon realised that no bee was as skilled and resourceful as Anna, so she appointed her as Chocolate Queen to ensure that she would have a constant supply of chocolate. This made Anna realise that the other bees were just jealous of her uniqueness and that this uniqueness brought her many advantages rather than disadvantages.

The picture book also reveals the real bee recipe for making homemade chocolate at the end. So you and your children can try to discover your own secret chocolate recipe!