This particular tea party is more on the sinister side than the others on this list – a rare quality amongst tea parties, to be sure. However, it soon becomes apparent that his reasons for bringing her to tea may not be quite so wholesome as we first expect. Just as Lucy steps through the wardrobe to discover the snowy forest beyond, she meets the faun Mr Tumnus, who takes her to tea in his home. Nobody needs me to introduce The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis The book is also delightfully inclusive, quietly confirming the important truth that everyone should be welcome at teatime. The leaves they sprout contain not just delicious flavours, but a secret, wonderful kind of magic too, which the story reveals in good time. The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’NeillĪnother illustrated marvel, this graphic novel tells the story of a teashop where all the tea is grown from the heads of little tea dragons. One of my favourite picture books, ever! 2. The illustrations are evocative, the story is charming, and the characters are delightful. When Kikko’s father heads out to visit her grandmother, she rushes after him with the pie he left behind, only to stumble upon a curious tea party – as the title might suspect – in the woods. With a pinch of Alice in Wonderland and a dash of Little Red Riding Hood, this tea party is the fairy-tale mashup that dreams are made of. The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi So who better to list some of the best tea parties in literature? 1. (Apr.7 tip-top tea parties in children’s fictionĪndy Sagar’s new book Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup follows a pair of tea witches who live in a magical, walking teashop. It’s the boy’s conquest of fear through the power of his own imagination that gives the story its impact. The next morning, miraculously, blue sky greets him out the window. He climbs into the crow’s nest with the family’s cat, and the ship, its work done, sails off into the sky. There the setting shifts, and the boy appears at the prow of an enormous ship equipped with powerful fans to drive away the storm. As the storm gathers power (“All through dinner, the rain beats hard against the shutters”), his fear mounts bed seems like the best place to be. His mother says that they can go to the beach next week instead. His teacher has warned her class to go straight home-a bad storm is coming. The child who narrates gazes out the window anxiously. Miyakoshi’s ( The Tea Party in the Woods) classically drafted charcoal drawings portray reality and dream with equal care as a storm threatens to upend a family’s planned trip to the beach.

The Storm by Akiko Miyakoshi