The Tiger Who Came To Tea - Review

A timeless classic...

Title: The Tiger Who Came To Tea

Author/Illustrator: Judith Kerr

First Published: William Collins Sons and Co Ltd 1968

This Edition: Harper Collins Children's Books 2006

Found: Borrowed from library

What's It All About?!

Ding-Dong... Sophie and her mummy have just sat down to tea and there is someone at the door, we better see who it is!

"It can't be the milkman because he came this morning.
It can't be the boy from the grocer because this isn't the day he comes.
And it can't be daddy because he's got his key."

An unlikely guest comes to  tea, politely eats and drinks everything in sight and then leaves, albeit politely!

With nothing left in the house for daddy's supper, Sophie's mummy is at a loss at what to do next. When daddy returns home, they tell him what happened. Daddy has a good idea and everything is put right.

Review:
An absolute pleasure to share with OJ. A simple, easy to follow story with a lovely ending.

The illustrations are clear and uncluttered. They prompted OJ into talking about; and recognising his own experiences in them. (Bath time and how he enjoys sausages for tea were amongst a few!)

The story is based around a child's everyday experiences (apart from the tiger of course) and so a child can relate to the story. There is also a scene where the family go out to a cafe in the dark, which brought up lots of talking points. Night and day, visits to a cafe, what the characters ate, the fact the vehicles in the picture had their lights on etc.

One thing that did stand out, was the time in which it was written. I had to explain to OJ what a milkman and grocer boy was; but this did not affect our enjoyment of the story.

I liked that the tiger was so polite, yet so rude at the same time. OJ's shocked expression due to the tiger consuming all the sandwiches and buns was so funny. We also liked that because the tiger had drank all the water in the tap, Sophie couldn't have her bath... What a marvellous excuse not to have one!

After reading this to OJ; the nursery nurse trained part of my mind was inspired. The book could be linked into a range of topics within a childcare setting.
Amongst them was the idea that this book would be a wonderful addition to a home corner/role play space. Children could be encouraged to think about who (or what) they would want to invite for tea and what would happen on their visit. In this way it would encourage and develop a child's imagination.

On the whole, I would recommend this as a must-share-and-read for youngsters.

OJ:
"Naughty tiger... It's a naughty tiger mum-mum!"

OJ thought this was brilliant. When daddy came back from work, Ollie set about telling him about the furry, stripy tiger...

Book worm rating:

 out of 5!

Amazing Authors #1

Cast your mind back to your childhood and your earliest memory of books, What was being read to you? What did you read for yourself? Chances are, that book is also loved by millions of children today.


Beatrix Potter, Eric Carle, Enid Blyton, Dr Seuss,  Roald Dahl; these are but the handful of amazing authors that come to mind. Books that have stood the test time and have remained favourites. Favourites that I read to children, and those I read to my own.







I thought it would be cool to look at some of these authors in a bit more detail, followed by a review of one of their books.

Judith Kerr

Judith Kerr is the author illustrator of  many well-loved children's picture books, amongst these are the the Mog the cat stories and the title "The Tiger Who Came to Tea"

I really loved the Mog series when I was at school, and remember them being read often at story times. I even remember drawing a picture of Mog for art with pastels.

Judith Kerr was born in 1933, Berlin. Her father was a drama critic and a distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis. The family escaped from Germany in 1933 when she was nine years old. The family passed through Switzerland and France before arriving finally in England in 1936.

Judith dreamt of being a famous writer as a child, yet she only started writing and drawing books when her own children were learning to read.

Judith admits that she was"enchanted by the strangeness of cats" and the 17 books of Mog, were inspired by Judith's own cat (also named Mog) and her antics. (With some other cat stories from friends!) The children of the story, Nicky and Debbie have the same second names of her own two children and their father Mr Thomas was based on her husband.

She lives in London, the same house she has lived in since 1962.She says that since the death of her husband writing has become more important than ever^[ and she continues to write and illustrate new children's books with Twinkles, Arthur and Puss published in 2008 and One Night in the Zoo in 2009.

Here is a link to a short interview with Judith Kerr which I thought was lovely; she takes us into her work room where she creates her stories and illutrations.

Soon to follow: The Tiger Who Came To Tea review.