Children's Books about Tea - More, More, More!

It's all about tea books around here right now...and books about history. For pleasure I'm reading "John Adams" by David McCullough. Really interesting but a bit hard to read in the one page increments I'm usually able to read in lately. BUT, for my Tea Pages "work" (I use that word VERY lightly) I've had some really interesting things to check out. It's been hard to decide what to read when I have time!

Today I'm going to look at two more children's books. Coming up, though, I'll be looking at the debut novel for a new young adult series, The Teashop Girls. I also received what could only be classified as the perfect book for me - "Knitting and Tea." Really. I hope it lives up to my very, very high hopes and expectations.

By the way, if you are interested in literature and have a quirky, sarcastic sense of humor there's a great new blog for you to check out. Completely irreverent and definitely amusing. (And, yes, I know the author so this isn't completely random.)

One other note - This week make sure you're checking back here at Tea Pages. We'll be having a give away of some gift certificates to Aura Teas...Details to come.

OK, back to children's books.

The first is Come to Tea on Planet Zum-Zee by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees. This 2005 publication is reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss book with its silly rhymes and unique cast of characters. This book introduces you to the Planet Zum-Zee where alien children of all shapes and sizes are coming to share tea and treats. From the fuzzy yellow aliens who bring cake to the bald, red and round aliens who bring pizza and the blue alien who brings...What is that stuff anyway?...the characters are fun and appealing to kids. The illustrations are bright and vibrant, drawing you in to the story. American readers will immediately notice a few Brit terms like when they "tucked in" to tea, but my kids didn't mind. Definitely one worth adding to your children's collection, whether you're a tea lover or not!



The second book I took a look at this week was Lady Ginny's Tea Parties
by Susan Rennick Jolliffe. (Thank you to Orca Book for supplying this text.)

Lady Ginny's was a totally new approach to tea books from the others I've reviewed. The concept is that a very proper poodle named Lady Ginny and her moody cat Codger will host one tea party per month for her various friends. Each tea has its own theme appropriate to the guests. The book is laid out as a scrapbook, documenting each tea. The author definitely put a great deal of thought into developing detailed accounts of each tea.

The age range recommended was 4 - 8, but I would suggest it for the older end of that range. The humor is a bit too mature for 4 year olds.

The illustrations are extremely detailed and busy. To be honest, I think the way text boxes were overlayed onto the illustrations made it difficult to read sometimes. It felt hard to focus on the text with the elaborate parties going on all around.