Throwback Thursday - Butterflies
Over the past few months, you will have noticed that I haven't posted with as regular frequency. We've been on holiday, we've had several winter bugs and, being pregnant, I've been using BookBairn's naps to rest up and nap. But we've still been out and having fun! We've still been readin books. So for the next few weeks, until the end of the year, I'm going to do a few flashback posts to share some of our adventures and the stories we read alongside them!
At the end of the summer, BookBairn and I went to the amazing butterfly house at our local botanic gardens. BookBairn had an absolutely wonderful time running around the hothouse (it was tropical) and pointing at all the "butters". She kept pointing to them and was utterly fascinated! Best of all was when a butterfly landed on her shirt and then on her head! She loved her "butter hat" and giggled and squealed with the kind of joy only a nearly-two-year-old can.
After this, I honestly struggled to find many butterfly books and I had to consult the lovely librarians and some of my fellow picture book enthusiast friends on Twitter. Thank goodness we came up with a few but for children's story writers out there: there is a huge gap in the market here.
First we borrowed 'The Crunching Munching Caterpillar' by Sheridan Cain and Jack Tickle from the library and it has been such a brilliant read. It is most certainly a 'very noisy picture book' as the cover suggests and each page has a red and yellow button to press making a noise related to that part of the story. Unlike many noisy books these buttons are printed on the page and the corresponding buttons are tucked in the back cover pages meaning that the book isn't as heavy and cumbersome as other noisy books although it also means you need to have the pages aligned and sometimes BookBairn has found pushing the buttons quite tricky. This book tells the story of a little caterpillar who in between sleeping and munching on leaves he meets fellow beasties and creatures all of whom can fly and he dreams of having wings too. Of course one night he has a very long sleep and more dreams of flying and when he wakes up, like magic, he is a marvellous winged butterfly. I'll be honest, I only borrowed this book because we went to see the butterflies and I wanted to read some stories with BookBairn about butterflies. But this book has become a favourite of BookBairn's. She particularly enjoys pressing the button to hear the birds singing "tweet tweet" - a word that she had not learned before; and she has also picked up the word "munch" when asked "what does a caterpillar do?" she replies with "munch"! It's been a great little learning tool for us which is exactly what I was looking for. I will be looking out for others in the series.
. This is a beautiful book with lovely elements and in some ways the crazy colours remind me of the Botanics with all those butterflies floating around. And of course with a pop-up butterfly at the end this story really does feel like you are surrounded by fluttering butterflies as you read.
If you know of any other great butterfly stories it would be lovely to hear from you!
And if you get a chance I would highly recommend visiting a butterfly house with your little ones. It's seriously magical! I think next year we might get caterpillars and watch them transform into butterflies before setting them free in our garden. Now that would be magic!
Thanks for fluttering by,
Mummy and BookBairn xx
Click on the images above to find these books on amazon.co.uk
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What gorgeous books, The Hungry Caterpillar has always been a favourite in this house, thanks for sharing with #ReadWithMe
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to think of many books that are as well-loved as The Very Hungry Caterpillar! x
DeleteI loved the visit to the butterfly house in St Andrews. It was great to witness BookBairn's excitement and it was a magical moment when the "butter" landed on her head although next time I will be wearing shorts and a t shirt. Phew! It was warm. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great book and I like the sound of the Crunching Munching Caterpillar.
ReplyDeleteIt was a brilliant day - but very very hot! Crunching Munching Caterpillar is a very noisy fun book but unfortunately it's due back at the library!
DeleteThese are lovely books. I've themed the girls books by season but not my creatures before. #readwithme
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to read a few books on a theme isn't it. I've done my sort of by season in the past too! Thanks for reading!
DeleteI love Petr Horacek's books. I must keep an eye out for Butterfly. Great post! #readwithme
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate xx
DeleteSuch a lovely idea for a blog post, we have a butterfly house not too far away from us and it is gorgeous. Well done on getting so many lovely photos of them! You're right about the lack of butterfly books, they usually focus on a caterpillar changing in to one. I do like the butterfly in Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson though. #KLTR #readwithme
ReplyDeleteI need to get Monkey Puzzle from the library!
DeleteMummy loved the Very Hungry Caterpillar when she was little and so heart warming for G'ma that BookBairn not only loves it but that they use the library and their book networks to find similar stories
ReplyDeleteIt's such a brilliant classic story! x
Deletei love all these books. We have The Crunching Munching caterpillar on CD and it's so fun to read. Thanks for linking up to #KLTR
ReplyDeleteOurs was just borrowed from the library but must look out for the CD version as BookBairn enjoys audio books in the car now too!
DeleteThe Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a classic and well loved in our house. I've not heard of the others and will have to check them out. Thanks for linking up to #KLTR
ReplyDeleteThanks for another fab way to share and read similar blogs! x
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