Camping Books

 

Camping Books

We bring books along with us camping. They are not always nature or camping themed, but we have found some camping themed favorites that we would like to share with you. These four books have camping specific vocabulary and show four thoughts about camping: 1.) camping brings along the unexpected 2.) when camping we are immersed in God's creation 3.) when camping we can find silence and a break from our daily life 4.) when camping we can dream and create magical moments in our lives.

1. A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen. Published by Chronicle Books LLC, 2003. Ages 3-7. 

Camping thought #1 brought out by this book: Camping shows us to expect the unexpected and trust God that He will bring us home in the end.

This is the second book in the Mr. Magee series. If you haven't already, you should differently check out this book and his other books. Our daughter has had me read her this book, and the Down to Sea with Mr. Magee book, over and over and over! We also plan to read Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee in the winter. These are longer to read books but kept our daughter's attention, so are perfect for the preschool age. Chris Van Dusen does a wonderful job of writing rhyming verse and his vintage style illustrations are captivating for our daughter to look at while I read the text. In A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, we find out what happens to Mr. Magee and his little dog Dee when they go camping and along comes a "stumbling, bumbling bear." The bear wants a sweet treat, the bear smells marshmallows and then what happens...

Mr. Magee sums it up with, "That trip wasn't quite like I thought it would be." 

2. C is for Camping by Greg Paprocki. Published by BabyLit, 2020. Ages 3 months to 3 years. 

Camping thought #2 brought out by this book: going camping shows us the awe and beauty of God's creation.

Books are helping our daughter build her vocabulary, become familiar with the English alphabet and helps build her print awareness. This board book is a good size and reading length for the newborn to 3 age range. The illustrations are described as, "classically retro midcentury art style." We liked the word choices that were chosen for the letters of the alphabet, from adventure to marshmallow to stars. We have had s'mores when camping and both our daughter and her friend her same age, both only eat the marshmallows. So part of the camping fun is the marshmallows, not every time though. The last time we were out camping we had an unexpected change of location from a more private spot surrounded by trees that was taken by another camper to a wide open spot that was up on Lizard Head pass by Telluride. We woke in the middle of the night to an amazing star display with the milky way strewn across the sky and Jupiter glowing ruby red. Our daughter was tossing and turning so I took her out to see the stars and she said, "Wow!"

Yes, "S" is for "stars." 

3. Goodnight Great Outdoors by Lucas Albert, illustrations by Megan Marie Myers. Published by Adventure Publications, 2021. Ages 6 months to 4 years. 

Camping thought #3 brought out by this book: camping allows us to find silence. Even God rested and Jesus went to the mountain by himself to pray.  

This book is a simple goodnight book that is a copycat of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. "Goodnight boy and goodnight girl. Goodnight silence. Goodnight squirrel." Once again helping to add specific camping vocabulary. Our daughter likes the picture of the dog and asks if it is our dog. This book also has information about the twelve animals found in the book.

4. Woodland Dance! by Sandra Boynton. Workman Publishing, New York. 2021. Ages: Newborn- 3 years. 

Camping thought #4 brought out by this book: we can have magical memories while camping. 

We bought this board book when our daughter was a few months old and have brought it on most camping trips. This is Daddy's favorite book. The woodland animals gather for a dance. The woodland trio plays. The fox falls asleep. Boynton's writing is easy and fun to read. Wouldn't you want to spy on a woodland dance? The book feels magical and we could have our own daydream of imagining magical things like this. We could also play music or/and dance like they do in the book. One time when we were out camping in June, our daughter kept playing "Ring-a-round the Rosies" over and over.

What are your favorite camping themed books? We look forward to reading many more books with the camping theme.

 

Even if you don't go camping, maybe you can take some time to play (play an instrument, play a game or to dream), to disconnect, to look up at the stars, to eat a marshmallow (or 4) or indulge one of your simple joy's and to trust God everyday in this journey He has called us to.

 

Happy reading!