Sometimes it's the simple things in life that make it worth living. Like finding a quiet spot (quite a quest in itself) to laze in a grassy field, listening to bird song and watching butterflies flitting between flowers.

Two new books are perfect for nature lovers who want to know more about these fascinating insects.

Starting with "The Butterfly House" by Katy Flint and Alice Pattulo, over 100 species of butterflies and moths are presented in exquisite detail, with tons and tons of interesting facts and nuggets of information about each species in turn.

Coupled with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations of each butterfly and moth, you'll soon get up to speed identifying some of our more common butterfly species, and perhaps even some of the rarer ones as you enjoy some time out in the summer sunshine.

Not just a book for country dwellers, you'll find that butterflies are everywhere, and moths have staked out a claim in many of our urban environments too.

Authoritative and detailed, this is a fantastic resource to dip into during the warmer months.


"The Butterfly House" by Katy Flint and Alice Pattulo is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

There's also "How to be a Butterfly" by Laura Knowles and Catell Ronca.

Should a butterfly be big or small? Should it be bright and bold, or perfectly pale? A joyous, imaginative, yet informative non-fiction picture book about what it takes to be a butterfly – body parts, behavior and life cycle – with the underlying message that diversity is a wonderful thing and that, in fact, there are 20,000 ways to be a butterfly!

Not only beautiful to behold, butterflies provide an opportunity to introduce a variety of environmental topics. Serving as key indicators of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, they face threats of extinction due to climate change and habitat destruction – all vital subjects for children today.

With stunning illustrations displaying a colourful array of different butterfly species, each labeled with its scientific name, and fascinating details about their anatomy and life cycle, there is plenty for young nature lovers to spot and explore time and again.

Wow! Words and Pictures are really spoiling us this Autumn with some really amazing Natural History titles...

Time for an amazing animal book, this time one for younger readers who love learning about all the different species right across the planet...

Who knows what lurks in the deep dark jungle? This lushly illustrated book will definitely offer some clues

The story of a sycamore tree is brought to stunning life in this new book from Laura Knowles and Jennie Webber.

"It Starts with a Seed" is a gentle tale of a tree's lifecycle, from the very moment the seed begins to germinate and take root, right through the stages as the tree grows up and becomes a hugely important habitat, source of food and source of shelter for many different animals and birds.

Fascinating lyrical storytelling is complimented by the most amazingly detailed illustrations as we discover just how important trees are, and how one tree can be such a pivotal part of the ecosystem.

For us, it's a familiar story as we spend a lot of our weekends out in the countryside, slowly building up our own knowledge of the flora and fauna we can discover almost on our own doorstep.

It's a really beautiful book though, gorgeously presented as you can see from the illustrations below...

As the tree gets older, even more animals and plants come to rely on it as a place to shelter or a resource for food

We particularly loved the limited palettes, perfect for this Autumnal time of year.

Charlotte's favourite animal - foxes!!

"It Starts with a Seed" by Laura Knowles and Jennie Webber is out now, published by Words and Pictures (Kindly supplied for review).