Picture Book And Play is a weekly post in which we look at a picture book (or books) Peapod’s been enjoying recently and some of the play we’ve had based on it.
We’re big fans of Mini Rabbit in our house (you can read our reviews of Mini Rabbit Not Lost and Mini Rabbit Must Help here and here) so we were VERY excited when our copy of Mini Rabbit’s newest adventure arrived a few weeks ago.
Mini Rabbit Come Home by John Bond, published by Harper Collins
Even to someone as camping-phobic as I am as an adult must fondly remember the absolute thrill of ‘camping’ in a flimsy pop up tent in the garden (only to come in an hour later cold or scared or hungry etc), or just the forbidden delights of of staying up late or making indoor dens to hide out in. Mini Rabbit Come Home captures the essence of all of this perfectly!
Mini Rabbit is excited to be camping outside the house for the night (it’s going to be the best night ever!) There’s just a few more things they need – and quickly, the clouds are gathering…
As anyone who knows Mini Rabbit will guess, despite his (perfectly depicted) childlike enthusiasm for helping, things don’t go quite to plan for poor Mini Rabbit.
The marshmallows are too tempting, the logs too big and where is that rope?! And then there’s those rainclouds… As ever, so much of this is told through the visuals which I absolutely love and which really adds to the humour of the story.
Of course, Mother Rabbit is wise to it all and prepared for all eventualities, leading to the most lovely, completely relatable and believable, and utterly heart-warming ending.
Plus, we thoroughly approve of Mini Rabbit’s bedtime reading 😉 I can’t lie – I was so tickled to see what it was!
Well, there was only one activity we could do after reading this wasn’t there?
Unfortunately, I am not a natural den-maker! (All those of you who’ve already been there, done this – tips welcome!) But, we did our best and it was loads of fun.
Peapod loved it and was really excited about it in the day or so before we had chance to do it – he even asked for marshmallows from the supermarket (spoiling my surprise 😂) and was telling me all the things we needed (I managed to convince him building blocks would be OK in place of the logs for the woodburner for his campfire!)
It’s safe to say Mini Rabbit’s marshmallows would have been safe with him, as Peapod was not a fan! But he did enjoy getting in a thoroughly sticky old mess putting them on and off sticks to ‘toast’! He loved getting his instruments out for the rain too!
Are you a Mini Rabbit fan?
Are you a camper or a camp-a-phone like me?! How’s your den building?
What have you and your little ones been reading or playing this week?
Bellis Does Books 
I’m definitely a camping phobe! I think your den looks great… Much better than any I managed to make when S was younger
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Haha! Thank you! Yeah, I’ll definitely be sticking to indoor dens – camping is NOT for me!
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Such a cute post! Love the photos of Peapod in his den, you did such a good job with it!! 💜
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Ah, thank you! Don’t think I’ll ever be a den expert but it did the job and we enjoyed it!xx
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