Picture Book Picnic

Walker Books have set up The Picture Book Picnic, which is a campaign to encourage families and friends to share books like they would a picnic.

What a lovely idea.

I have to say that my early morning reading sessions with Eleanor can end up looking a bit like a picnic of books – a blanket and a bunch of books spread all around us, as we explore picture book after picture book after picture book. It sounds repetitive – and let’s be fair, sometimes it can be a bit – but, actually, it’s a wonderful thing to do, even at 5am. Eleanor’s at a perfect age for getting into picture books – she listens to the stories, but she also explores the pictures, pointing at people and objects and getting excited when she sees characters appear on the page.

But it’s not just Eleanor and the younger children who enjoy picture books. Rosemary still loves them, too, even though she’s happy to sit through bedtime stories with no pictures now. As she transitions from not being able to read to reading a little bit, to (sometime in the near future, hopefully) reading fully, picture books are providing her with a wonderful stepping stone. Quite often in the mornings, now, I’ll find her with her head in a picture book when she’s supposed to be getting dressed, eating breakfast or even walking out the door. She’s doing more than just flicking through the pages, as she had done in the past. She’s really reading the pictures and using them to get into the story. I think she may also be reading the odd word, but for the most part she’s using the pictures to tell the story. Once she’s moved on a bit, I imagine she’ll use the pictures to help her with some of the words.

And, well, I just love the pictures. There is such a huge variety of styles out there in the world of children’s picture books, that a morning picture book picnic is akin to a stroll round an art gallery. Sometimes I’ll sit down in the book corner and spend half an hour just looking through the illustrations. I would love to be able bring stories to life in such a beautiful and vivid way as so many of the children’s book illustrators do.

The Picture Book Picnic is having a bit of a blog tour at the moment, and they’ve very kindly let me kick it off, to tie in with Book Week. They sent us a copy of Hello Tilly by Polly Dunbar and it arrived this morning. Rosemary was very excited to open it up and wanted to read it immediately, so we had to do so while I was in the middle of feeding Eleanor. Eleanor got somewhat distracted and kept turning round to look at the book. I have a feeling this is going to become another favourite (see this morning’s post for some other favourites).

Polly Dunbar has a beautiful style and a penchant for simple but quirky little stories. Penguin is probably our favourite. Hello Tilly is part of a series about Tilly and her friends, which includes Happy Hector, Where’s Tumpty and Pretty Pru. Rosemary and Eleanor both enjoyed the story and the pictures and, as I said, I have a feeling it will become a favourite and probably grace the morning picnic blanket in the near future.

For a chance to win a copy of Hello Tilly, as well as other books, go to the Book Week giveaway post.

For more Picture Book Picnic fun and prize giveaways head to Playing By the Book.