Hello! Time flies too fast — it is January of 2022 while I am still contemplating a post with our garden update for 2021 !

Today we are having a beautiful winter day full of snow and really crisp temperatures, which is a real treat as so far this winter has been extremely dry and warm. And so while the boys are wrestling with their 74 year old grandma (my mom is truly epic) I got a little time to spend on my blog. So here is a little post about one of our most loved recent additions to kids library — “If You Go Down to the Woods Today (Brown Bear Wood)” book by Rachel Piercey, illustrated by Freya Hartas. This most beautiful book is done by Magic Cat publishing in UK, and is indeed magical!

Book synopsis

This lovely book takes us through a year in an enchanted forest where animal friends gather together for seasonal celebrations, school, sport games, theatrical performances, picnics and bonfires. Each page of the book is dedicated to one of such event — an arrival of Spring in the Bear’s forest, school days, Bunny’s birthday, swimming lessons, Bear’s campfire, Winter sports. The book is both a wonderful seasonal read as well as an inspiration for different ways to mark the passing of seasons.

Each page of the book has a sweet little poem by Rachel Piercey about the event featured on the page, a full spread illustration filled with most wonderful little details and a list of things for a child to spot on a page.

Here is an excerpt of one of the poems:

The sun is lower in the sky
and many trees are bare.
The snowflakes spiral silently
through peaceful silver air.

The wood is not so quiet, though:
it rings with rowdy glee.
We’ve all met up, with chattering teeth,
to sled and skate and ski.

Beautiful and fun

My boys really love spotting all the little details, such as “Mama Squirrel teaching the animals how to count”, “Frog teaching the science lessons by the pond” or “A lively game of Hopscotch”. And once we go through the list provided in the book we come up with our own assignments to spot.

Here is Eleon telling Alexandros what to spot on a page and intentionally looking away so Alexandros doesn’t trace his line of sight. 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this brief post and if you have a lovely book to share drop a comment!