Customer Reviews

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It took me nearly twelve years to locate a hardbound copy of this book, and was well worth it. I remember this book vividly from my childhood. My mother read it to my sister and I on rainy days. It is the story of a girl named Sophie who is visited by a hungry tiger with a voracious appetite for tea and biscuits. He ends up eating everything in the cupboards to satisfy his appetite.

It is a sweet story that is easy to follow and read along with your mom, or if you are like me, read all by yourself now that you are an adult. It made me not only want to have a pet tiger, but it made me want to travel to Europe, where the book is set. Sadly, I still do not have a pet tiger, but I have traveled to Europe!

If you are lucky enough to find it in stock - snatch it up quick - they go really fast!

Yet another great children's book is out of print... my mother read this book to my sisters and me over and over; we loved it every time. The story is about a little girl and her mother who are spending a quiet day at home when a tiger arrives. There is no violence in this story - the little girl and her mother survive quite intact - but the tiger does eat them out of house and home. Faced with this adversity, however, they show remarkable forbearance and end up making the best of a bad situation. The illustrations are marvelous as the tiger is portrayed at an appropriate scale. If you can find this book, snap it up!

I was a little unsure when a good friend insisted on buying this book for my then 16-month old daughter at a local book shop. Firstly, it wasn't cheap so I was afraid that it would be a waste if my daughter didn't like it and it wasn't a board book (although my daughter did have some paperback books, she had mostly board books at the time). However, my friend said that she'd loved the book as a child and her own 2-year old loved it as well. So, she got it...and I needn't have worried at all. My daughter loved it from the get-go and was willing to sit through the story at least twice at each sitting, which amazed me as it is not a short story. I decided to try another book by the same author - "Mog, the forgetful cat" and my daughter enjoys that too (it's an even longer read!). As an aside, I have found that the best books to get are the ones that you yourself remember reading as a child or ones that someone else you know remembers from their childhood. It's obviously left an impression and it'll do the same again.

My fiancee bought this book for my daughter and I was a little doubtful at first, but she loves it and knew it off by heart by the time she was 18 months old! we read it over and over again and she even says good bye, good bye, good bye, good bye to the tiger on the very last page. This was an excellent buy and I'm looking forward to my younger daughter reading it too.

My nephew in the U.K. had this book and my son loved it. We had to buy him his own copy.
It is a story about a tiger who drops by for tea and end up eating everything in the house. He even drinks daddy's beer.
The book is out of print here but is still in print in the U.K. It is available at amazon.co.uk.

Another book we discovered when living in England, this is a fun keeper made more fun if read aloud in a British accent. Sophie and her mum are astounded by their unexpected and ravenous guest, but maintain proper manners. Fun repetitious phrases, British terms (at least in our version). Judith Kerr also writes the delightful Mog series Mog the Forgetful Cat

Kiwi Magazine Review:
Tea parties are the perfect occasion for practicing good manners and clever conversation. However, when your guest turns out to be a tiger and eats you out of house and home, it's a spectacular party to even rival Alice's tea party. This sweet book tells the tale of the day the tiger came for tea. Methinks it may have been inspired by a stuffed animal sitting at the table but one can only wonder how such a fun story came to be more than 40 years ago.

This book is an absolute winner. Every little girl I give it to accepts it immediately as a firm favorite. It all started with my memories of not wanting to return it to the library. Modern little girls like to carry it about with them (Hoping that someone new will read it to them? As an opportunity to admire it in public? Because they can't bear the thought of being parted from it?) Who knows. All I know is that this is a great book.

I should start off by saying this is a HUGELY popular children's classic in the UK. It is as dear to the British as Green Eggs and Ham is to Americans. Little Sophie is at home with her mother when the doorbell rings - inexplicably, it turns out to be an enormous tiger with an equally enormous appetite who would like to have some tea. He is invited in and proceeds to eat every scrap of food and drink every drop of liquid(including Daddy's beer) and then leaves. Sophie's mother is in consternation. "There is no supper for Daddy, what shall I do?". This is where the book starts to feel dated- some would say in a charming way, but I felt annoyed after the second or third reading. Daddy comes home, hears that there is no food and brilliantly takes charge by deciding they will go out to dinner. This book is endearing, with its fanciful story of a tea swilling tiger, a product of a little girl's imagination(or perhaps it was Mummy who came up with this cover story after drinking all of Daddy's beer?), but modern parents can find equally appealing books to read without helpless mummies.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK! I'M BUYING A 2ND COPY TO HAVE A MINT CONDITION BOOK FOR LATER. OUR TODDLER WANTED THIS READ 7 TIMES IN A ROW UNTIL WE FINALLY SAID IT'S NAP TIME. IT'S NO SURPRISE OVER 3 MILLION COPIES HAVE BEEN SOLD!