Phoebe Dupree Is Coming to Tea!
Age 3+
Picture Storybooks
Abby is anxious to host the perfect tea party for a friend she idolizes, but life serves up a sweet taste of the fun to be had when perfection is off the table.
Have you met Phoebe – Miss Phoebe Dupree?
Phoebe’s as perfect as perfect can be.
To Abby, her friend Phoebe can do no wrong. Phoebe is speedy. Phoebe is smart. She’s equally brilliant at science and art. So when the budding hostess invites Phoebe over for a tea party, everything from the sugary treats on the menu to Abby’s dog, Louie, must be, well ... perfect. But when life – and possibly Louie – send a clear message to let loose, the girls indulge in a perfectly imperfect playdate. Linda Ashman’s vivacious rhyme and Alea Marley’s inviting illustrations serve up a classic tale of enduring friendship at a tea party that will leave readers wanting to pull up a chair.
Creators
Linda Ashman is the author of more than forty picture books, including William’s Winter Nap, illustrated by Chuck Groenink, and Rain!, illustrated by Christian Robinson. About Phoebe Dupree Is Coming to Tea, she says: “I have a chronic case of hosting anxiety, so it wasn’t hard to imagine a tea party where everything goes disastrously wrong.” Linda Ashman lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband and two dogs, who are perfect at sleeping, eating, and shedding (the dogs, that is).
Alea Marley is an award-winning illustrator of many books for children. She loves creating whimsical scenes that are filled with patterns, texture, and bursts of colour. Alea Marley lives in North England.
Reviews
A delightful look at how things can go awry, the disasters that can happen quite by accident, the mopping up that brings friends together, this book will be a wonderful read aloud, inviting readers to join in, predict the rhyming words and laugh lots. Using pencil, watercolour, crayon and digital pencils, Alea creates vibrant, colour filled scenes. Readers will love finding patterns on each page, checking out the textures and different sweeps of colour. Each scene is full of fun and humour as the characters display the attributes given in the text. Their clothing and hair tell us so much about their personalities! Just wonderful.
ReadPlus
This is a lovely story about resilience. About how life doesn’t always go to plan, but that sometimes, it can turn out even better! It explores the knots we can get ourselves into when there’s no need at all and the worries about being good enough so people will like us, when of course, it’s better just to be ourselves. This book is delightful and fun, with light, playful illustrations, and one very cute pooch.
CBCA: Reading Time
