Picture Book Picnic: Butterfly Butterfly by Peter Horacek

I’ve been very lucky to be involved with lots of Picture Book Picnic events, with Walker Books. This summer they’re doing a fantastic blog tour over 10 days – 10 blogs, 10 picnics and 10 books. We’ve all been sent a wonderful collection of picture books, as well as some bits and pieces to help us have our picture book picnics. You can see the other stops on the way at the end of the post – and the 10 days will round off at the Picture Book Picnic blog itself.

Ever since they heard about it, the girls were looking forward to it and when the package arrived, they unpacked it with great excitement. One of the books is Oh No, George, which we reviewed a little while ago and which the girls both love, so they were especially excited that we’d have an extra copy that we could give to their friend whose birthday party they were going to the next day. We all love sharing books with friends and often buy copies of the ones we have loved the most as gifts for friends.

We waited a little before our picnic, though, so that we could take advantage of that brief spell of sunshine we saw. Do you remember it?

We started off by making some lovely oaty cookies, using the Walker Books bear cookie cutter that came in our package.

We even cut our sandwiches into Walker Books bear shapes!

Then we packed our bag full of our books, a blanket, our food and our drinks – and the camera, of course!

The girls very sensibly found a lovely shady spot, as it was a very hot day indeed, and we unpacked.

The books we were sent and took on our Picture Book Picnic with us, were:

• A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham
• Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton
• Arthur’s Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar
• You’re a Hero, Daley B! by Jon Blake and illustrated by Axel Scheffler
• A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino
• The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems
• How to Get a Job by Me the Boss by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Sue Heap
• Anna Hibiscus Song by Atinuke and illustrated by Lauren Tobia
• George Flies South by Simon James
• Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek

We really enjoyed them all. My favourite would probably have to be A Bus Called Heaven, which made me cry as much as Let’s Get a Pup! Said Kate (also by Bob Graham).

We read our books and ate our food, interspersing our picnic with bits of running around.

And RoRo made some videos, including one of her reading our book Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek.

Butterfly Butterfly is a bright and beautifully drawn simple story about a girl searching for a butterfly and finding lots of other fabulous mini beasts. It has some lovely cutouts that draw you through the book and are very cleverly done. And at the end of the book, she finds the stunning butterfly (see the video above for a glimpse of this). I think this would be a wonderful book to take into school or pre-school for a mini beast theme, or just if your child is interested in mini beasts. I have a feeling that most Very Hungry Caterpillar fans would enjoy it. It’s also just a lovely book to have on the shelves and to read at any time. I really love the vivid illustrations that do actually jump out at you (and not just because the butterfly literally does so).

Once we’d had enough food, we packed up the bag.

Then we headed to the play park for more running about, though the girls had to search for some shade again.

And LaLa had such a wonderful time that she fell asleep when we got home, before she had a chance to eat her dinner!

The Picture Book Picnic blog tour:

30th July www.playingbythebook.net
31st July www.rainydaymum.co.uk
1st August www.amothersramblings.com
2nd August www.theboyandme.co.uk
3rd August www.beingamummy.co.uk
6th August www.deepinmummymatters.com
7th August www.wahm-bam.org
8th August www.mummymishaps.blogspot.com
9th August www.arewenearlythereyetmummy.com
10th August www.picturebookpicnic.co.uk

If you want to have a go at your own Picture Book Picnic, here are some activities you could download.

Disclaimer: We were sent the books and package to help with our Picture Book Picnic by Walker Books, but all opinions (about the books or the weather) are mine (or ours).