Given how much I love them, there aren't enough classic children's books on this blog. So I'm going to make up for that with a short series, starting here with Judith Kerr's first, and for many, best, picture book.
I didn't stick around in the picture books when I was learning to read. So even though The Tiger Who Came to Tea would have been 10 when I was four, I don't remember reading it then. I remember it later, when I read it to my friend Katie. She loved it - couldn't get enough - and I fell in love with it too. As a result, it feels like a cherished childhood memory of my own, even though I only read it during Katie's childhood! Ah well, such is the way of these things. And as Katie is no longer here to have that memory for herself, my mental picture of reading it to a little red-headed girl is all the more precious.
It's a simple tale about a tiger who comes to tea with a little girl called Sophie, and her Mum. The tiger eats all the food in the house, drinks all the water in the tap and leaves again. So when Dad comes home they all have to go out for sausages and ice cream and Mum has to re-stock the larder, not forgetting an extra large tin of tiger food, just in case.
You must make sure that every small person you know has a copy of this book, and for good measure you should probably have one too. You know, just in case...
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hooray! i had this. i loved this. we have this. we love this. however, the recent documentary alerted me to the possibililty that tiger may be a proxy for the nazis. judith had an amazing life. this has changed things somewhat.parent question. child loves toiger came to tea and the sound of music - how exactly does one explain Nazis to a 3 year old - other than 'the bad guys'? discuss
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