The World According to Honey Bear

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HONEY BEAR Honey Bear, the author of this book, is the service dog for co-author Catherine Rodriguez, Ed.D. Catherine is not only Honey Bear’s People Mom, she is also a Parkinson’s Disease patient and active in advocacy work for the Parkinson’s Association of San Diego. This book was written to teach children about Parkinson’s, and about the close and helping relationship between a patient and her service dog - essential for companionship, assistance in regulating movement, and providing daily routines for the person with Parkinson’s. The book is meant to be shared and read with children. It is rich with photographs of Honey Bear, and full of notable quotations about dogs. Although most of it can be read by a child past the earliest stage of reading, some concepts such as patient advocacy and neurodegenerative diseases will need to be explained. Honey Bear describes her daily routine, as well as how she has helped her people family in some emergency situations. Chapter titles like Presidents and Their Dogs,
Things I Love and Hate, and My First Plane Trip indicate the breadth of information this book contains - offered in an intimate first-person voice, dog to child. All children will enjoy reading about the adventures of Honey Bear. However, children with someone in their life who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s will be especially touched. This book is an excellent tool for beginning the difficult discussion of how, and why, their family member is changing. As Honey Bear says: I hope that this book will inspire people with Parkinson’s to get a dog. We are the best medicine- better than anything the neurologists prescribe. All proceeds from the sale of this book are donated by the authors to the Parkinson’s Association of San Diego.