Colter’s The Secret Garden Cookbook is mainly a collection of high calory, sugary and fatty foods. She starts with Burnet’s essential food path and never wanders far off. “You can trifle with your breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner,” Burnet writes, “if you are full to the brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and […] read more

Paddington at the Seaside begins: “Today,” said Mr. Brown at breakfast one bright, summer morning, “feels like the kind of day for taking a young bear to the seaside. Hands up to all those who agree.” So, the Browns pack up the motorcar and drive off. He wears his signature hat (usually red, but green) […] read more

Wilfred Toadflax’s surprise birthday is a picnic feast of cakes, pies, jellies, and fruits. It’s the kind of high-carb meal that makes your teeth hurt. Mr. Apple’s grace suggests that the food is local, but not as he suggests from “our green fields.” By any standard, this is a gourmand’s delight. But why is it […] read more

Brunhoff ‘s Babar Visits Another Planet (1972) begins at the start of ­­yet another family picnic until a rocketship upsets the fun. Before they realize the situation, Babar, Celeste, their children Pom, Flora, Arthur, cousin Alexander, and Zephir, the monkey, are sucked into the rocket and taken to a distant planet. It ends well, and […] read more

Morse’s Picnic on the Moon is a young people’s book with a serious message for world peace. It’s Morse’s notion that while Earthlings picnic on the Moon, they overlook its hidden inhabitants who live in peace surrounded by lunar tranquility. Featured Image: Joep Bertrams. Picnic on the Moon. See Brian Morse. Picnic on the Moon […] read more

Astrid Lindgren’s zany picnic is a gastronomical feast. The chief picnicker is Pippi Longstocking, a brash, energetic, good-natured Swedish girl of nine who lives independently packs her own picnic. After zipping through some household chores, Pippi takes her friends Annika and Tommy for lunch. Sitting on a blanket, “they saw all the good things Pippi had spread […] read more

The real secret of The Secret Garden is that with enough picnics and plenty of food, any youth will be happy. “You can trifle with your breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner,” Burnet writes, “if you are full to the brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly frothed new milk and oatcakes and […] read more

Picnic is the euphemism for a day-long eating orgy in Margaret Gordon’s Wilberforce Goes on a Picnic (1982). It’s the story of obese bears and a goat, who collectively devour mounds of hamburgers on rolls, sandwiches, a jar of catsup, a bowl heaped with mashed potatoes, bananas, peaches, plums, a pie, a cake, tarts, and […] read more

When Christopher Robin organizes an “Expotition” to the North Pole, his friends are unsure what he means. “We are all going on an Expedition,” said Christopher Robin, as he got up and brushed himself. “Thank you, Pooh.” ” Going on an Expotition?” said Pooh eagerly. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on one of those. […] read more

Atkinson’s satirizes a Sunday School outing by making it a continuous set of missteps that leave the three Lennox children, Clifford, Babs, and Bunty, in such a rush to the train station that only two of them make it. The problem is that Nell Lennox, their disorganized mother, decides to make scones as their contribution […] read more