| Product: |
The Tiger Who Came To Tea - Judith Kerr |
| Date: |
11/01/01 (254 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Tigers in the house.
Disadvantages: Um....tigers in the house?
My children announced they no longer want a bedtime story recently. I was upset. I was very upset. I like the bed time story routine. It helps me convince myself I'm a proper mum, you know - an apple pie kind of Mum. Of course I'm not. I'm rather a failure on the domestic front - I can't cook, I forget to empty the hoover bag and I only iron it if it goes on the outside - er....I'll let you into a secret - I don't always iron it then either. But I like reading to them and I thought they liked me doing it. I sniffed.
After a bit more talk I felt better. It wasn't the STORY bit they didn't want; it was the BEDTIME bit. Apparently they'd decided that they'd rather read a bedtime story to each other now they are learning to read at school. I could read to them when I got in from work. So I felt better. It didn't take me long to discover the truth either.
Reading to themselves? Hah! Hardly. They've got a new game - army camps. THAT's why they don't want me to read to them. They want to play army camps with the various props (missing household items to you and me) they've hidden in their bedroom when they go to bed. They can't wait for me to go away. Of course they don't know I know (given the noise level associated with this game I could hardly not) and I haven't mentioned it. I'm just glad they still want me to read to them, even if it isn't at bedtime.
Which brings me nicely on to The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Like I say, my children are getting older - they're learning to read themselves and we've moved away from picture books and on to longer books - you know the chapter-a-night sort of thing. These days they can sustain an interest in narrative but of course, like everyone, they love the familiar and so generally we have a chapter of one book and generally a short picture book too where they can also try to pick out the words they recognise.
><br>The picture book is always an old favourite and at least once a week it's The Tiger Who Came To Tea. I love it when they choose it. I really go all apple pie then. My dad was the bedtime story routine person when I was small and it was one of my favourites. He was starting his own business in those days and worked long hours so those stories at night were 'our time'. He never let me down. So when the it's the chosen book of any particular evening and my boys snuggle up for their story I get all nostalgic.
Sorry, I'd better start mentioning the book hadn't I? Sophie is a little girl just sitting down to tea with her mother when there is a knock at the door. They wonder who it could be. Is it the milkman? No, he's been. Is it the delivery boy? No, he's been too. Is it Daddy? No, it's too early. Sophie opens the door. My word - it's a tiger and he's angling for an invitation to join them for tea.
Of course Sophie's mum takes it in her stride. In comes the tiger. Sophie thinks he's great. This tiger is gorgeous. Even I think so. He's got a lovely long, curving tail that wraps itself around the table leg, the chair or Sophie's shoulder. He's friendly. But he's greedy too. He eats all the sandwiches. He eats all the buns. He eats all the cakes. He drinks all the milk, tea and juice. Things are beginning to get rather worrying.
That naughty tiger doesn't stop there. He eats Daddy's tea too. He eats all the food in the cupboard and drinks all the milk. He drinks all the water from the tap. When it's all gone he leaves. But he does say 'thank you', so I suppose he's a polite tiger at least. Sophie and her mother are worried. Sophie can't have a bath - the water's all gone. I love that part and so do Conor and Kieran. They're not quite sure what to think. No water in the tap at all? Could a tiger REALLY do that? There is no supper for Dadd
y either. What shall they do?
Just then Daddy comes in. Sophie and her mother tell him all about it. Never mind he says. We'll go out for dinner. And they do, it's late and "all the street lamps were lit, and all the cars had their lights on, and they walked down the road to a cafe". I love those few words. You can see it was magic for Sophie, being out past bedtime thanks to the tiger. They have supper and Sophie gets ice cream too. In the morning Sophie and her mother go shopping to replace all the food that greedy tiger ate and they don't forget to buy a LARGE tin of tiger food in case he should ever call again..... "but he never did".
The Tiger Who Came To Tea comes highly recommended by Conor, Kieran and Jill. It's a wee book; it'll only take you ten minutes or so to read. But, like all the best picture books for young children; the meanings, ideas and references are condensed. There is a lot to talk about. It's beautifully illustrated too. Children love animals and they love it when animals intrude into the human world especially when it's in a humorous way and even more especially if the animal is naughty and gets one over on the adults - even MORE especially if the adults are also the parents.
However, although the tiger is naughty and although he causes Sophie's mother some problems it all ends happily. Sophie loves the tiger because he's shown her that her parents are to be relied upon and that they will solve her problems for her. Still better his naughtiness brought her a late night, a trip out and some ice cream. What more could she ask for? The purchase of a large tin of tiger food in case the tiger should return is a bit like tapping the back of wardrobes in search of Narnia I think. What a shame "he never did".
Judith Kerr wrote and illustrated The Tiger Who Came To Tea. If you buy it for your children and like it check out the Mog stories also by he
r. They're about Mog the cat, there are several of them and they're just as good. Mog and her antics are irresistible. Kerr has that perfect knack of writing in a way that is easy to read aloud. The words are simple, yet strong and rhythmic and the dialogue flows. She makes it easy for you.
Yes, The Tiger Who Came To Tea is old-fashioned; it was written thirty years ago - yes it is full of anachronisms - who has a milkman these days, let alone a grocer's delivery boy? Whose mother bakes buns for tea? Cafes? Surely it should be Happy Meals under McDonald's Golden Arches (ugh). Daddy saves the day, not Mummy. But it really doesn't matter. It's a fantasy and your children will recognise it as such. And as a fantasy it's timeless. Conor and Kieran think it's far better to go to a cafe than a burger place, and I've Judith Kerr to thank for that, I'm sure.
So go on - BUY IT!
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