Story Snug

Age Range: 3 to 7

The Story: It is a very cold night and Percy the Park keeper is snuggled up in bed when there is a knock at the door. The cold squirrel who is standing there gets into bed with Percy and then somebody else knocks. Throughout the evening a succession of animals join Percy until the bed is so full that they all fall out. When they hear a noise under the floorboards the animals all find places to hide. Luckily it isn’t the monster they feared but just a little mole. The mole gets into bed with Percy but everyone else sleeps comfortably in their own hiding place.

We love Percy, he is such a kind, caring park keeper and his park is home to many animals which means that as well as listening to his stories for pleasure there is also scope for discussion about animals and their habitats. The park is familiar territory to most children so the stories give them a great opportunity for them to talk about the wildlife that may also live there. I really enjoyed reading One Snowy Day to a group of children this week, they sat mesmerised by the story and Nick Butterworth’s beautiful illustrations. As some of them didn’t know the book we tried to guess who was knocking at the door and who was hiding under the floorboards which made the story a really interactive experience. At the end of the book we looked at the big, pullout poster to find out where all the different animals were hiding.

A lovely warm bedtime story for a cold night!

Author / Illustrator: Nick Butterworth

There are several Percy books and DVDs (Percy the Park Keeper was a popular television series). We would love to know if you have a favourite Percy story.

We also recommend Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth.

Posted by Catherine Friess