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A sweet and delightful book to treat yourself with and a celebration of friendship in all its forms, to be read with a cup of tea in hand!
It’s tea time in the forest!
Come along with Teddy and his woodland friends for a lively tea party filled with enchantment and fun.
Don’t be late.
They’re serving tea at promptly three!
Teddy Bear Tea is a book that seems tailor-made to comfort one’s soul and fill it with pleasure and joy: a Teddy Bear and a Rabbit host a tea party in the woods, what could go wrong? Many other animals come in attendance, with the outcome of conveying a message that is a beautiful celebration of nature and friendship in all their forms.
Since the very beginning, the child-reader can only remain enchanted by the nursery rhymes, which are harmonious and never banal (a rare trait when it comes children’s books): throughout the book, they present themselves as even so musical that it becomes impossible not to read the whole thing in one breath, almost as if singing a pleasant song with no interruptions. Stylistically speaking, the rhymes and the very specific words picked out to compose them are never cacophonous and, on the ensemble, create a very pristine effect especially if they are spoken out loud, which can very much be likened to the sound of a sweet nightingale’s chipping or a baby’s crystalline laugh.
The illustrations are drawn with a very different art style from the one that is conventionally found in children’s books: in fact, all of them appear to be drawn by hand, with all the lines and the drawing process of the artist clearly visible and neither digitally enhanced, nor smoothed in any other way whatsoever. This, though not my personal preference, makes them even more unique and helps to convey the idea of some sort of “reproducibility” which, it must be said, is very appealing to children. Indeed, armed with just a crayon or a pencil, they can try to imitate such beautiful drawings and obtain a somewhat similar result in their final product, which could never be achieved if the images had ben digitally made. This is a positive aspect because it makes the illustrations immediately recognizable to the eye in terms of their patterns and their colours, and it is impossible not to love them, since the subjects they represent are as sweet and as tender as the narration itself. The way animals are portrayed is simply gorgeous and they all look like soft toys, the kind that children love hugging and cuddling.
The text itself is written on pages next to each drawing, which is an excellent choice, however the font is a bit awkward for a children's book, with its black boldness which appears a bit out of tune also with the delicate tone of the narration. Moreover, the small illustrations at the bottom right corner of each page are rather unpleasant to look at, because you can clearly distinguish the borders of the square they are in, which is also of a very noticeably different colour from the rest of the page.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book throughout and I believe it is a sweet treat for people of all ages but, of course, it is especially directed at very young children, I would say pre-school children more specifically. First, because of the way the illustrations are drawn and the animal-protagonists, and secondly because the book presents a subtle moral directed at celebrating the small and yet important things in life and friends “honest and true”. Animals of every shape and form, every colour and every part of the landscape all come together for tea, casting their differences aside for one afternoon in order to spend a peaceful and joyful time together, an important hidden lesson that every parent would want their child to learn from this very young age.
Reviewed by
I hold a BA in English Literature and Classics. I majored in English and I am specialized in reviewing children's books and classics. Tips for my work are greatly appreciated!
Synopsis
It’s tea time in the forest!
Come along with Teddy and his woodland friends for a lively tea party filled with enchantment and fun.
Don’t be late.
They’re serving tea at promptly three!
About the author
Hello, I'm a Pre-K Head Start Teacher, who writes and reviews children's picture books. I exclusively review children's picture books because I use my teacher hat to analyze the story and how it could be applied in the classroom. view profile
Published on September 09, 2020
0-1000 words
Genre: Children's
Reviewed by
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