Tea Rex and other tea party reads.

From Goodreads

There are some really amazing picture books out there. Here is one that I think is tea blog worthy. Tea Rex by Molly Idle. It is about two little kids having tea with a t-rex. Tea with t-rex. Tea Rex. It's awesome. The illustrations are lovely-- so crisp and what I think is a very muted color palate. It's just beautiful. And funny to imaging teaching a dinosaur tea time manners. Molly Idle has written and/or illustrated other picture books on my favorites list: Zombelina and Flora and the Flamingo. It looks like she has one about camping with a t-rex called Camp Rex (of course!) that just came out in April.

This is what you should use to steep your tea from this little shop in preparation for reading Tea Rex.

Last year I had a royal tea party program at the library. If I hadn't mentioned, I'm a librarian. Anyway, I was able to get the local coffee shop to donate kid friendly tea and cookies. We set up tables with pretty table cloths, I used silver platters (from the dollar store), and encouraged fancy dress. We had girls in princess dresses and even boys in suits! The kids were beyond cute. I told them about what tea is and where it comes from, all the different kinds of teas and what high tea and afternoon tea are. I was surprised that I kept their attention the whole time. I think their favorite part, besides the tea and cookies, was the tea themed stories and songs. We sang "I'm a Little Tea Pot" and read a couple cute books. Below are some of my favorites.

 

Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson The Duchess of York
Ruby must tell everyone she is meeting the Queen for tea. This would be me if I received an invitation to tea with the Queen... or even an invitation to tea with my grandma.

Tea with Grandpa by Barney Saltzberg
A little girl talks about her grandpa's tea time ritual. This will be Jay when we are in our 60s.

Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk
All Miss Spider wants to do is have the other insects over for tea, but they're all scared of her! Maybe that's why I never get anyone to show up for tea parties. Now I know.

Fancy Nancy: Tea for Two by Jane O'Connor
Nancy and Bree have a tea party where tea pots and friendships are broken and mended. This happens at all tea parties. O'Connor also has a tea party book on how to throw a tea party. Pretty cute book.

Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham
A young girl goes to the tea plantation to help earn money to pay the doctor caring for her mother. Some mysterious monkeys lead her up the mountain to pick the some of the rarest tea leaves in the world. Fascinating story about the elusive Cloud Tea. Definitely for an older child, but a great picture book nonetheless.

The Tea Party Book by Lucille Recht Penner
This book was my favorite party book/recipe book/manual for life when I was a kid. I think I had my mom do every tea party with me. When I flip through the book, which I still own and is now on my daughter's shelves, I have distinct memories of flipping through the book years ago and still get the same giddy feelings. Favorites: Rainy-day tea and Teddy bear tea.

Are there any tea party picture books I'm missing? There are some honorable mentions that I've marked on GoodReads. Speaking of GoodReads, do find me. I love finding new things to add to my ever growing list. I recently checked out a couple adult non-fiction books on tea that I hope to share with you here. Stay tuned!