Sunday Afternoon Visits: September 16
The Three Cabritos: Eric A. Kimmel

Kid Tea: Elizabeth Ficocelli

Book: Kid Tea
Author: Elizabeth Ficocelli
Illustrator: Glin Dibley
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3 to 7

Isn't Kid Tea a great title for a picture book? Written by Elizabeth Ficocelli and illustrated by Glin Dibley, this rhyming, colorful book is sure to appeal to appeal to kids from preschool and early elementary school. Kid tea is what you get when you take a dirty kid, and steep said kid in the bathtub. Depending on the nature of the dirt, you get different colored teas. For example, if a kid spends the day making mud pies, then you will naturally get brown kid tea. But if the same kid spends the day eating blueberries, then you get blue kid tea. Simple but powerful, and oddly appealing.

Elizabeth Ficocelli's text shows her joy in wordplay. For example:

"Tuesday, new day,
Popsicles-to-choose day.
Lick and slurple,
melting purple,
dripping-down-my-chin day,
slipping-down-my-shins day."

Slurple. I love it. I also like "Saturday, splatter day, raindrops-getting-fatter day." Younger kids will enjoy the repetitive text, with the text on every other page spread reading:

"Dunk me in the tub, please,
for yellow kid tea!"

Or red kid tea. Or blue. Or brown. Glin Dibley's mixed-media pencil, acrylic and Photoshop illustrations are simple and joyful. Each picture of the colored tub water carries that color throughout the entire picture, so that the tiles behind the tub take on hues from lilac to pink, as the tub water gleams purple or red.

This is a quick but entertaining read, and an excellent book for before or after bath time. It could also work well for young kids first learning their colors. Be careful, though. The appealing phrases might get stuck in your head, and you'll find yourself walking around the house thinking "Dunk me in the tub, please, for more kid tea!"

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Publication Date: March 2007
Source of Book: A review copy from the publisher
Other Blog Reviews: Just One More Book (podcast), Tea Cozy, Chicken Spaghetti (recommended by Junior), In the Pages

© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

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