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Touring Book Club: Up In The Leaves #TouringPictureBook

Hello and welcome back to Along Came Poppy! We are very excited to confirm that we have joined forces with fellow picture book enthusiasts and UK based bloggers BookBairn, Mamma Filz and Acorn Books to create the Touring Book Club. Together we aim to give you four different perspectives on a newly released picture book and we will magically transport you beyond the story itself by sharing our unique ideas for exploring the themes within the book.




Up In The Leaves

The first book we are featuring in our very special book club is the beautiful Up In The Leaves written by Shira Boss, illustrated by Jamey Christoph and published by Sterling Children's Books. This book is based on the true story of the author's husband, Bob Redman, who as a boy built an amazing and increasingly ambitious series of twelve tree houses in Central Park, New York. 

Bob built the tree houses as a way of escaping hectic city life. Unfortunately the houses kept getting removed by park workers but Bob rebuilt them over and over again making them more elaborate each time! 

The story is ultimately one of childhood adventure and escapism. Bob's story is testament to the power of patience, resilience and perseverance. He grew up to become an arborist looking after trees all over New York city and doing something that he really loved.

The charming and vintage inspired illustrations perfectly accompany this uplifting story and really capture the imagination so you quickly find yourself immersed in Bob's hidden and almost magical world amongst the tree tops of Central Park. We particularly enjoyed talking about the differences between the images of the hectic city and the tranquil park.

It truly is a wonderful story and a beautiful book that will definitely appeal to readers both young and old. We thoroughly enjoyed it!



Problem solving and a lesson in perseverance!

Mini Reviewer, Theo (4) loves nothing more than a spot of construction and is often found surrounded by Lego, wooden blocks and, of course, cardboard boxes. So inspired by Bob's amazing tree houses we decided to have a go at making our own little houses. Together we raided the craft cupboard and discovered a whole range of resources for our models.  



Theo carefully selected some wooden sticks to make his house and together we constructed a frame. He then had great fun balancing some sticks on top to make a roof. Unfortunately the first house quickly collapsed so he had to rethink his design and he rebuilt his house with a bit more help! He particularly enjoyed building additional walls using pebbles and playdough to stick them together. 

The activity was certainly a great exercise in problem solving as well as patience and perseverance. Theo didn't give up until he was completely happy with his house. He even insisted on finding some little people to go inside because there were people in the houses in the book - great observation skills Theo!





Finally... 

We hope you enjoyed reading our post, please do stop by the other blog stops for the Touring Book Club to see where the book took them. You could go on a Woodland Adventure with Acorn Books; Try out BookBairn's City / Park Sorting Activity; or even get crafty with Mamma Filz and her Changing Seasons Tree Craft.

You can purchase a copy of this book here and why not check out our Amazon Store which is full of other fantastic recommendations (affiliate links).

Until next time... HAPPY READING!
Kate & the Mini Reviewers xx

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of this book for review purposes from the Publisher. All opinions are, as always, our own. This post contains an affiliate link, you can find out more about what that means here.

10 comments:

  1. What a great idea Kate! No wonder the kids loved it! I might see what BookBairn can manage if I can find where i put the lollipop sticks!

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    1. It was a lot of fun and the best bit is it can all be taken apart and reused as no glue etc!

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  2. I love how you incorporated some building with the book. i'm going to have to try this with B. he is 4 and just loves anything like this. the book sounds lovely too :) #KCACOLS

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  3. I loved seeing all the ideas on your touring book club :) and this book was my fav of the month last month!! Thanks for sharing with #readwithme

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  4. Those illustrations look great. I want to check it out now. I love doing projects inspired by the stories too. cheers, #KCACOLS

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  5. Aww this looks amazing! Great idea to transform the book into a themed activity for the kids #KCACOLS

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  6. Oh I love this! What a lovely idea and something I'm sure my kids would love to do too! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time

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  7. This is a great idea nd the book looks fab! #KCACOLS

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  8. What a fantastic idea, I absolutely love the concept. Though we're way out of picture books and into chapter books now. Happy transforming! #kcacols

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  9. All together a fantastic experience, how clever:)
    Mainy
    #KCACOLS

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