Tea Time

So if you've been around the blog any length of time, you know I love tea parties. I love herbal tea, I should have been English. I must have my tea just about every morning, and if you have scones. Simply smashing darling, truly.

Which brings me to today's topic. As a little girl I would spend hours on drawing dinosaurs.  I know many of you are thinking do what? What in the world do dinosaurs and tea have in common? That's it I'm outta here. Humor me and stick around for just a few more minutes... Pretty please, with sugar on top?

I have had a book on my Pinterest board "Worth Reading" for quite a while now. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and just had to pick it up. It's entitled Tea Rex by Molly Idle.

Now a bit about the author, we must pay tribute where tribute is due.

Molly Idle, according to the profile on her website; which can be found here, graduated from Arizona State University, and has also worked for the Dreamworks studio many years before jumping into children's literature and illustration. She now resides in Arizona with her family, and I can only hope that perhaps one day I can have a cup of tea with her.

 Now on to the story.

 

Tea Rex is about a children's tea party, and they have invited a larger than life guest. A Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now as you can imagine with a tea party, it has the best beginnings with the hosts showing Mr. Rex to the parlor, and offering a comfy chair. As you can imagine though, it is not long before havoc begins to break loose, and while Rex has all good intentions, well...he is after all a Dinosaur and must ROAAAARRR. Plus the size of the tea cup really should have been addressed before hand. In the end though a wonderful time was had by all, and there will be future tea parties, but perhaps next time at Rex's home.

This is truly a fabulous tale, and spun from the heart of a child. Who else would come up with having tea with a dinosaur? Okay, well besides the obvious answer of me your host.

This is a quick read, and perfect for bedtime... or a tea party tale, and I gladly recommend it to as many as will read it.

Brian Russell Book Review

First I would apologize for a delay in blogging. I have been going through a bit related to my army days, and will address this issue in my next blog post.

 But for today I've got something quite fun for you all. I am going to be reviewing a book for author Brian Russell.

Now those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Russell, I'll give you a brief background. He is an author, illustrator, father, and has run an online comic since 2007 called The Underfold.

His new book What I Remember About Dinosaurs is now available on Amazon here and is well worth the read.

 

 

For me the book truly brought back memories of my own childhood learning. How I would spend hours drawing from my How to Draw Dinosaurs book, and devoted days to learning about what the difference between herbivores, carnivores and omnivores were.

 What I Remember About Dinosaurs voices the opinions that I have often thought privately or only discussed in the confines of my car with my husband.

The drawings are simple and kid friendly. You loose yourself in the words that have been written and are immersed in a world where even the vicious T-rex looks a bit friendly. I allowed my mind to wander within the book, and rode on the back of a Triceratops, waved to the T-rex who returned it with a smile, and wiped away the tears of the Brontosaurus.

The truly magical thing about this book though is that it touches on the basics of dinosaurs and makes the reader want to learn more about them.

Sure there's Dinosaur Train that teaches what's going on with Scientists now and the ever changing world of the extinct dino's, but this book captures the essence of what dinosaurs were to those of us who grew up when they (dinosaurs) were all the rage.

I could carry on all day singing the praises of this book, and tell you how it is witty, and cleaver, but perhaps it is best for me to let you see how children actually feel about this book.

These are my own children who viewed the book, and loved it. See what they have to say.


Khyra (age 9) " I liked the book, parts of it were funny, and it was educational, I really liked the dinosaurs talking about the eggs, and swimming."

Amber (age 8) "I didn't like it. I loved it! I really liked the speech bubbles."

Cheyenne (age 3) "I want a dragon book." (I believe this is in response to part of mine and my husbands theory and discussion that dinosaurs were really dragons. I mean how else can you reason T-rex's tiny arms. He had to have been a Wyvern.)

I hope I have done justice in my short review, and hope you will pick up a copy for your kids, or grandkids, heck, pick the book up for yourself, because it is truly worth it.

Remember, sometimes to get in touch with your inner kid, you have to act like a kid yourself. While I don't mean go throw a tantrum; I do mean go find a kids book, preferably this one, and read just like you did as a child. Curled up in a window, or tree, upside down on the couch or with a flashlight snuggled up under bedsheets.