Stanley the Builder

Stanley

by William Bee

It's another busy day for Stanley and friends on the construction site!

When Myrtle buys a plot of land, she asks her friend Stanley to build her a new house. He works step by step—from clearing the site with his orange bulldozer, to lifting beams with his green crane. Thankfully Stanley's buddy, Charlie, helps out, too!

Simple steps, accessible text, and brightly colored illustrations helpfully convey the construction process for toddlers who love equipment, tools, and vehicles. After a hard day at work, Stanley winds down his day with a familiar supper and bath routine that makes this series a great pick for bedtime reading!

William Bee's beloved Stanley series is a trusted model for basic preschool concepts like colors and shapes, kindness and teamwork, jobs and daily routines. Toddlers will love hanging out with this adorable cast of friendly neighborhood critters in any of the available series titles. Help your little one collect them all!

Genres: Picture Books, Construction, Childrens, Storytime, Animals, Fiction, Juvenile

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2014

About the author

William Bee was born in London but now lives in the English countryside. In addition to writing children’s books, he races a vintage sports car, is an international skier, and when at home tends his lawns and meadows.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

It appears that Myrtle's hair bow prevents her from operating heavy machinery, holding a level, or really anything other than fetching orange juice and watching the men build her house. Did money even exchange hands here? And not to leave Stanley and Charlie off the hook, I mean, granted, they built a house in ONE DAY and STILL got to bed by 5 after 9, but their hiring practices seem kinda sexist. At least Myrtle is allowed to own land.

[Cberry2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Myrtle asks Stanley to build her a new house. Stanley clears the site with his bulldozer. Then he digs out the foundations. With his digger, Charlie came to help. Stanley pours the cement into the hole. Stanley then taps the bricks down. And Charlie checks that they are level. Stanley uses his green crane to lift the beams up onto the roof. Charlie nails the shingles onto the roof. Stanley puts the windows into the holes in the walls. Finally Stanley and Charlie paint the house in Myrtle's favorite colors. Red, white, and blue! Myrtle is very pleased with her new house. It's beautiful! Thank you, Stanley! Thank you Charlie!

[Rory · Rating 1 out of 5]

…..TERRIBLE BOOK. They build a house in a day which is cool but weird sentences and strange art. The house was also cuter before they painted it.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture book about Stanley the hamster building a house for his friend Myrtle. With Charlie's help, the two builders use a variety of equipment and tools until the house is ready for Myrtle to move in. Little ones who are fascinated by the step-by-step process of construction work will enjoy this book. Pair with Byron Barton's Building a House.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to assume Charlie is a girl so that this book isn't about two men building a house for a woman. :) That aside, I love the simple and colorful illustrations.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Playing with blocks meets reality in this adventure about Stanley as a builder.

What a world! His friend Myrtle buys land. Then she asks her pal Stanley to build a house for her. Easy-peasy.

No architectural requirements, nor architectural plans whatsoever. No red tape. No standards of any kind, unless you're counting preschooler standards -- in which case, all is best in this best of all possible worlds.

Stanley and his friend Charley lay bricks. Absotootly.

Payment isn't a consideration in the world of Stanley. However, Myrtle rewards her friends for their labor by presenting each guy with a glass of orange juice.

By the happy ending, everybody concerned is happy. Wotta life!

FIVE STARS to you, William Bee, for this simply delightful book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for a building unit for the preschoolers to look through. Stanley builds a house for his friend Myrtle with the help of Charlie. The illustrations show Stanley and Charlie using various building machines and tools (bulldozer, digger, cement pourer, crane, ladder, nails, etc.). The book also focuses on color (orange bulldozer, yellow digger, green crane, etc.) which I was not expecting, but was a nice surprise.

[Readersaurus · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absolutely adorable picture book featuring Stanley, the hamster, who has been hired to build a house. The illustrations show almost every tool you can think of, and young DIY enthusiasts will enjoy pointing them out and naming them. Disappointing in that the contractors are male, and Myrtle, female (hair bow and all) brings refreshments on a tray and oohs at the paint colors. Gender-neutral or mixed gender characters could have elevated this book.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows our ever diligent community hero Stanley, how to build a house for his friend Myrtle.

I like the page in the beginning that shows all the tools/equipment one might need in building something.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandson loved this whole series and we had to read the many many times! Cute illustrations and predictable endings. Each series ends with returning home after a busy day, supper, bath and bed! Lots of tools in each book.

[Eliot Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stanley and Charlie build a house for Myrtle using many different construction vehicles. Loved it!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to use for talking about construction equipment and colors.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanley is helping his friend by building a house for her. He uses different pieces of equipment in different colors.

[Avery Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avery was very entertained.

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great story about building for the young readers.

[Tegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute picture book. A great segue from board books to picture books for younger readers with short attention spans. Great use to color for them to learn and new vocabulary.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Myrtle asks Stanley to build her a house. The reader gets to see some of the steps to build a house, and some of the tools used. Simply told and brightly illustrated for early readers.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son likes the Stanley books because he can always see some kind of truck. This one just rubbed me the wrong way since Myrtle didn’t help them build her a house.

[Taleshjoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

استنلی مهندس

مجموعه کتاب مورد علاقه‌ی ممجو جان

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could you please build me a house Stanley?
Adorable as always with intricate and detailed illustrations.

[Miss Pippi the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanley and his construction crew are helping a friend build a house.

2024 storytime theme: hard hats

Reviewed from a library copy.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick kids book for those that like construction. Nothing superb or wonderful about it.

[Linds · Rating 2 out of 5]

just not my favorite, especially for storytime. good length, but just didn't have enough "umph" to it

[Margo Tanenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this delightful new picture book series from British author and illustrator William Bee, Stanley the hamster is very busy--building houses, working at a garage, even running a farm. In Stanley the Builder, Stanley is building a house for his friend Myrtle the mouse. He'll need his orange bulldozer, his yellow digger, and his green crane. Step by step, he prepares the land and then builds the house. Together with his friend Charlie, he finishes the project by painting the house in Myrtle's favorite colors--red, white, and blue--before returning home for supper, a bath, and bedtime.

In this series, Bee uses very simple vocabulary and minimal text together with very appealing digitally-created images to craft a story that is equally appropriate for two distinct audiences: toddlers/preschoolers and beginning readers.

There are so many things to like about this book, but first and foremost are the illustrations, with their clean black outlines, flat bright colors, and simple shapes (not to mention adorable hamsters...) I was especially interested to note that Bee trained as a designer (check out his quirky website, which gives little information on his books but tells you all sorts of interesting trivia about his passions for vintage cars and the Queen). His design flair can be seen in everything from the endpapers (see first image below) to the font chosen for the text. While this series is a sure-fire winner with toddlers and preschoolers, it's also ideal for beginning readers, with simple sentences and minimal vocabulary. Even with the limited vocabulary, Bee uses correct words for different tools and parts of the house, such as "shingles" for the roof, thus providing a rich use of words for the earliest readers. The book will also allow young readers to practice sequencing, since the steps for building a house are clearly delineated, and they can even re-tell the story using just the pictures as well.

Highly recommended!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have a child that is interested in construction or if you're in the middle of having a new house built, then this is a great book for you. It shows all the stages of building a house and what materials and machinery are used to do so.

The cover is slightly padded so it's good for younger kids. My daughter didn't seem super interested in it - but she's never really been interested in construction vehicles. The thing she liked most was Stanley's yellow hard hat.

It's not a bad book, it just wasn't a book that we were super interested in. I liked that it showed teamwork and friendship and then what Stanley does after a long day at work. Overall not bad - just not our cup of tea. Would be a lot better for those who are interested in that type of thing.

[Marya · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'd think it'd be weird to see a hamster dressed up in a construction hat and driving construction vehicles. But then, you've obviously not seen the Kia and Geico commercials that assure us Kindergarten classroom pets are adorable when they are anthropomorphized. Stanley the Builder falls squarely in this tradition, with Stanley, his friend Charlie, and homemaker Myrtle being just too cute in their bright and colorful accessories. Mercifully, the illustrations suggest movement, but don't actually show it, seriously cutting down on the potential creepiness factor.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great new series (I got unbound galleys from the publisher) of machine/color/cute animal books. Stanley's a multi-talented guinea pig with many rodent friends he's always helping out one way or another.

Here he builds a house for his friend Myrtle from the ground up. He has a little help from his buddy Charlie the mouse and a number of earth moving machines.

Two are out in June & two in August. Can't think of a picture book audience who won't approve on some level!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Building a house is tricky, but Stanley is up to the task. The helpful hamster pays attention to all the details, and readers have the chance to watch his friend Myrtle's house go up from the ground up. Stanley uses a bulldozer and lays bricks to give the house structure. His busy day concludes with a good meal before he heads off to a much-deserved sleep. Young builders will enjoy this easy-to-read title.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stanley the Builder is a delightful book for the very young learner as it takes the reader through the most basic steps in building a house. The helpfulness of the builders and gratitude of the new home owner are good examples of friends coming together for a project. The bold simplistic lines of the illustrations are uncluttered and clearly correspond with the text. I recommend this as a simple fun book to introduce a child to building.

[Christine Turner]

Stanley is building a house. Will he make it just right? When Myrtle buys a plot of land, she asks Stanley to build her a new house. He works step by step - from clearing the site with a bulldozer, to pouring the foundation, to painting the finished house in Myrtle's favorite colors. Luckily, Charlie helps out too. Building houses is hard work, but all three friends are happy with a job well done.