Happy Valentine's Day!

Sending you Valentine's Day love today...

Cards, candy, gifts, hugs, kisses, and sweet memories, 

May your day be special!

Pre-Teen Readers

My collection for the pre-teen reader is not quite as extensive as the younger reader.  The Baby-Sitters series includes Little Sister #28, Karen's Tea Party, published in 1992.  This is an etiquette lesson in disguise as when the father realizes his kids have poor manners, he sends them to charm school where the girls love to dress up and learn to dance and the boys remain, well, boys.  Eventually the boys learn a few basic manners, there's dancing lessons, tea party wars, and blushing girls dancing with bashful boys.

The Teashop Girls, written by Laura Schaefer and published in 2008 is a debut novel about first jobs, first crushes, and growing up a little along the way.  For the tween reader, it includes recipes for tea and tea time treats.  Tea themed quotes and lovely graphics are sprinkled throughout the book. 

The little book, You're My Cup of Tea has a variety of tea quotes and clever frog designs all centered around tea, special moments and special friends.  For example, We cherish each other despite our little imperfections, the way we would cherish an antique tea service with a few tiny cracks. And, Choose your friends as carefully as you would the finest tea leaves.

 

Children's Tea Party Books

 This fun collection of tea party books feature many ideas and suggestions on how to prepare a tea party.  Victoria Rose's Tea Party is a small book that includes stories, games, recipes, and punch-out paper dolls.  Come to My Tea Party is a book that features kindness and friendship for young ladies with the beautiful words and artistry of Sandy Lynam Clough.  Special themed tea parties are centered around faith, hope, love, and joy, with recipes, crafts, and inspirational quotes.  Teatime with Emma Buttersnap is a clever story where young children are introduced to the origins of tea.  Recipes and crafts are also included along with interesting historical facts.  Party invitations, menu ideas, and food preparation are included in this artfully illustrated resource book.  Any one of these books would provide a delightful introduction to the world of hosting tea parties helping to inspire creativity.

Children's Etiquette Books

 Let's Have a Tea Party! is a colorful and fun book by Emilie Barnes.  She shares many ways to make tea parties exciting and entertaining.  You'll find suggestions for tea party themes, recipes, assorted tips on serving tea the proper way, from invitations to setting the stage, to fun ideas, this book is a treasure trove for party planning. Tea with the Queen offers etiquette tips in rhyme with lovely graphics.  Don't reach and grab... don't load your plate with food that you might waste!  Politely pass the serving dish so all will get a taste.  Ultimately, the Queen joins them for tea, offering the opportunity to practice all those manners.  Tea for Ruby is authored by Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York.  Ruby receives an invitation for tea with the Queen, and proper manners are a must!  Colorful graphics are a highlight in this book, with a royal nod to the Queen.  In the end, the Palace is actually Ruby's grandmother's home, and she has a wonderful teatime with her grandmother, with the best manners.

More Children's Tea Party Books!

 This collection of children's books include Ellie's Tea Party, a board book where all the characters in Little Suzy's Zoo (Witzy, Boof, Patches, Lulla) decide to have a tea party that ends up being a tea picnic.   Colorful and fun, it features flowers and fruits, friends and a soft, blue blanket, hence the tea picnic.  Tutter's Tea Party is based on the TV Series Bear in the Big Blue House.  Tutter makes all the preparations for a tea party from making pastries, decorating the house, and serving refreshments.  They all decide, this is the best tea party ever!  And Bunnykins is a delightful and colourful storybook from England featuring two different stories.  Bunnykins makes a carrot cake, except there are no carrots.  They eventually make the cake and serve it with tansy tea.

If you look carefully, the little white bear is sitting on a small stuffed chair that is decorated in tea party designs.  You can find tea themed treasures and children's books just about any where!

Miss Spider's Tea Party

Miss Spider's Tea Party is a colorful and delightful counting book, shown here as the complete book and also as a board book in a slightly modified version.  Sadly, no one wants to come to tea with Miss Spider for fear of being eaten themselves.  The colorful puzzle shows the final tea party with insects gathered around the tea table.

The Teapot's Tales

Mrs. Pots and Chip tell the story of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  A curse had been placed on everyone in the castle, include Mrs. Pots and Chip.  In the end, everyone is returned to their original being, including the teapot and cup.  Fun to read, and with the stuffed Mrs. Pots and Chip, kids in our household were able to play along with the story.

Early Reading

This little collection of tea themed books are geared towards beginning reading.  Our Tea Party is a Scholastic book geared to ages 3 - 6 or Preschool-Grade 1.  Printed in 1996, it gives a face lift to the Dick and Jane readers!  Some tea and cookies?  Nancy Shaw's Sheep Out to Eat is just plain fun to read!  These sheep have a wild time in a tea room, in rhyme.  They munch, they crunch, tea cups smash... oh my!  Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea tells the tale of a lonely elderly man who acquires an equally elderly cat.  They eat muffins, pour tea, and enjoy the opera.  It's a fun little chapter book that I enjoyed reading to me niece when she was younger.  Another Scholastic book, Rabbit's Party tells about birthday party plans.  Each of rabbit's 3 friends were to invite 2 more friends, but in the end, they all invited each other and savored a big salad with carrots followed by the favorite, nut cake.  Hilda's Tea Party is slightly more advanced reading and features the artistry of the Richard Scarry and all that goes on in that series, including dropped tea cups.  It's an adventure!

 

I'm a Little Teapot

This newer publication (1996) of I'm a Little Teapot features twelve verses of the song.  The expanded verses tell about a teapot that dreams of visiting China and Mexico, swinging in the jungle, or playing with pirates at sea all the while waiting to be used to serve tea.  Fun!  Very colorful, and equally beautiful, this book makes me smile and sing!

 

I'm a Little Teapot

This little children's board book features I'm a Little Teapot, that old familiar favorite!  Didn't we all learn that song along with the movements?

Published in 1992, it was illustrated by Moira Kemp and featured the 1939 text by Kelman Music.  That catchy tune is depicted in colorful graphic drawing complete with dancing teapots and a parade of sugar, creamer, and honey bowls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A colorful and fun little tea party with a clown, stuffed rabbit, bear and elephant concludes the story.

What I found fun, were the graphics on the back cover featuring a child, and the motions that are to be performed while singing the song.

 

Children's Board Books

This fun little collection of children's board books all pertain to afternoon tea, from the very basic I'm a Little Teapot that we all learned when we were little, to a very colorful first tea party book full of information about sharing laughter and smiles while taking tea.  Donkey's Dandelion Teatime is from England, is a counting book, and when the kids reach five, they all shout 'it's donkey's teatime'.  All sturdy little books, they have enjoyed countless hours of reading and discussing tea time.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Although not quite as fancy as those beautiful designer purse cakes we stumbled across in NYC, this precious little cake will take center stage at a baby shower this weekend.

This cake consists of a 10" round to form the buggy, and 2 smaller 6" round cakes will create the wheels.  The handle is made using the portion of the large round cake that is cut away to make the top of the carriage.  Fun to decorate and sure to please!