May I Bring A Friend? (May I Bring a Friend Nrf) (Hardcover)

~ Beatrice de Regniers (Author), Beni Montresor (Illustrator) "The King and Queen Invited me To come to their house On Sunday for tea..." (more)
Key Phrases: The King

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The King and Queen are most gracious hosts to a certain little boy--and any friend of his is a friend of theirs. When he brings a giraffe to tea, the King doesn't blink an eye and says, "Hello. How do you do?" and the Queen merely exclaims, "Well! Fancy meeting you!" The royal pair continue to invite the boy as their guest for tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, apple pie, and Halloween, and each time he politely asks if he can bring a friend, waits for their assent, then brings a hippo, monkeys, an elephant, and once even a pride of lions into their elegant home. Beatrice Schenk De Regniers's gentle, repetitive, rhyming story, with the refrain "So I brought my friend," will resonate with young children, who will be pleased to see the well-behaved wild animals wreaking harmless havoc in the palace, and soothed by the unfalteringly open arms and perpetual politesse of the King and Queen. Beni Montresor's distinctive, inky, richly colored drawings earned this book a Caldecott Medal in 1965, and have won the hearts of children ever since. (Ages 3 and older) --Karin Snelson

Product Description

What could be more natural, when invited by the King and Queen to tea, than to ask to bring a friend? And that, of course, is what the hero of May I Bring a Friend? does. Not only to tea, but to breakfast, lunch, dinner, apple pie and Halloween -- one invitation for each of six days of the week.

The King is most gracious. "Any friend of our friend is most welcome here," says he. And his graciousness extends to giraffes, lions, hippos, monkeys, all kinds of friends. Not all of whom are on their very best behavior.

It must be assumed however, that everyone (including the reader) enjoyed the friends, for why else would the king and queen step off to the zoo for tea on the seventh day.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 16th Printing edition (February 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689206151
• ISBN-13: 978-0689206153
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #264,687 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mother may I, November 1, 2004

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The allure of royalty knows no bounds in the mind of a small child. For kids, even better than seeing a king and queen in court is the idea of being friends with them. What child wouldn't want to be best buds with the country's highest rulers? "May I Bring a Friend?" brings this idea radically to life. Starring one small boy, it combines the I'm-Indispensable-To-Royal-Rulers fantasy with the I'm-Friends-With-An-Array-of-Furry-Animals fantasy. It may not sound particularly promising, but the results are rather charming in the end.

Our first shot in this book is an image of a small boy holding an envelope proudly above his head. Says the text, "The King and Queen/ Invited me/ To come to their house/ On Sunday for tea". The boy is thrilled, but asks politely if he might bring a friend along. The rulers are peachy keen with this idea, so it's a bit of a shock when they find that the boy's friend is a giraffe. Still, all goes well. Next, the King and Queen repeat their invitation, this time for breakfast. The boy once more asks if a friend would be all right, they acquiesce, and lo and behold a hippo arrives and proceeds to eat all the food in sight. The monarchs are a bit perturbed by this, but it doesn't seem to mar their friendship with the boy since they once again invite him back for a Monday stew dinner. This time the boy brings monkeys. You have the gist of the book. Sometimes the boy brings lions, other times it's the odd elephant or seal. Finally, after a final invitation, the boy says, "No, no! My friends want you, instead/ To come and visit them...". So King, Queen, and lad have tea at the City Zoo. The final shot is of everyone in a bit cage, the royals hugging the boy who is grinning with glee.

It wasn't the ending I'd expected. That's the problem with reading a lot of snarky contemporary picture books. After a while, you start anticipating twist endings, or stories with surprises at the finale. I really thought the King and Queen would leave off inviting the boy to any more food-based parties, but they never did. It's not as if they were always happy with the kid's guests either. In a singularly interesting picture the boy has just brought along a whole pack of monkeys. As the simians swing precariously on chandelier the royals sit there with looks of extreme unhappiness on their faces. Only the boy (and the aforementioned monkeys) is looking particularly pleased. Smashed dishes clutter the table. You have to wonder why the King and Queen didn't at least begin screening the boys' friends after this point. Instead, it's quite the opposite. The next invitation to the child reads, "The more friends you bring the better". Odd but true.

It's an interesting book apart from all this. Overall the book rhymes regularly, but there's always the occasional extra word or two that makes the sentences jump about awkwardly. As for the pictures, they vary from black and white, to a single bright color with black images, to pink/orange/yellow/purple/red/brown combinations of great eye-popping interest. These pictures are always silly and rarely dull. It's also a lot of fun to watch the King and Queen as they go about their daily business. My favorite picture of them shows the King holding a skein of yarn for the Queen to roll into a ball. It's sweet.

This 1965 Caldecott Award winner is a deft little number. It's not particularly original or different, but it certainly has its charms. Kids who like a wide variety of animals (and the idea of playing with them in palaces) will take to this book. It's not going to blow your pretty little mind or strike you as particularly earth-shattering but it's a good natured plucky book that has some fun with its ideas. A nice addition to one's library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A somewhat lost classic, May 12, 2006

By	Emily K. Paster "Mom of a precocious preschoo... (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: May I Bring a Friend? (Paperback)

This was one of my favorite books as a child and my mother has fond memories of reading it to me. I recently rediscovered it as a book to read my own toddler and I have learned that most people have not heard of it. That's a shame. The illustrations are wonderful and the story is great fun. A little boy is invited to various meals by a doting king and queen and, contrary to all rules of etiquette, asks if he can bring a guest, who always turns out to be some more or less untidy zoo animal. The combination of royalty and wild animals makes this a perfect storm for my child. The text has wonderful rhymes, with lots of clever enjambment, and it reads quite musically. I hope more people discover this lost classic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Special Invitation....., March 20, 2002

By	Roz Levine (Virginia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"The King and Queen/Invited me/To come to their house/On Sunday for tea.// I told the Queen/And the Queen told the King/I had a friend/I wanted to bring.// The King told the Queen,/"My dear, my dear,/Any friend of our friend/Is welcome here."// So I brought my friend..." So begins Beatrice Schenk De Regniers' timeless classic, May I Bring A Friend? originally published in 1964. Our young narrator is invited to the palace quite often, in fact every day of the week, and has lots of interesting friends, he politely asks to bring...a giraffe to tea on Sunday, a hippo to dinner on Monday, monkeys to lunch on Tuesday, an elephant to breakfast on Wednesday, a pride of disguised lions for Halloween on Thursday, and a horn playing seal for Friday's Apple Pie Day. Finally on Saturday, the little boy and all his special friends extend an invitation to their ever-gracious hosts. "So that is why...// The King and Queen/And I and all/My friends were seen/On Saturday at half-past two/Having tea at the City Zoo." Ms De Regniers' joyous, lilting, rhyming text begs to be read aloud, and the engaging repetition of each day's new invitation allows little ones to interact and read along. Beni Montresor won a Caldecott Medal for his boldly imaginative, colorful, and detailed pen and ink illustrations, and youngsters will enjoy all the humor and silly antics of visiting zoo animals. Perfect for preschoolers, May I Bring A Friend? is still as fresh and entertaining as it was over thirty-five years ago, and is a simple little treasure to read and share now with friends and family, and future generations in the years to come.