The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

The Tiger Who Came to Tea is one of the great classics of children's literature. Don't be put off by the illustrations if you think they look a bit dated, children don't notice such things and by now this book is vintage - not old-fashioned in the least!

The story is simple enough on the surface; Sophie and her mother are living a quiet, suburban life when, without warning, a rather large tiger comes to tea. This large tiger takes a lot of filling up and the book details all the things the tiger eats and drinks (kids love this list format) and by the time Daddy comes home, there's nothing in the house to eat or drink. The solution? Daddy decides that they must all go out for dinner.

This part of the story brought back powerful memories of my own childhood. Sophie puts her coat on over her nightdress and they go out into the darkened streets illuminated by street lights. I can remember the frisson of excitement when we went out at night as children. It's wet and cold and the lights bounce of the water on the road. Magical. They then eat the sort of illicit supper children adore.

Back home all the groceries are replaced together with tins of tiger food - but will the tiger come for tea again?

This is a treasure of a book. My son is sixteen now but I hear from time to time about Judith Kerr and The Tiger and I sneak into my son's room and take a peak and always find something new and remarkable about it. You'll love it, but more to the point, they'll love it too.

If you live in the UK you can buy The Tiger Who Came to Tea at Amazon.co.uk here

I Think You'll Enjoy These Books As Well

Judith Kerr has written many books for children but, after A Tiger Who Came for Tea, it's her Mog books that have captured everyone's attention - adults and children alike - so I've included just a couple here.

I'm a pretty forgetful person and small children certainly forget things, so I thought they might especially enjoy Mog the Forgetful Cat.

And of course, what better gift to buy a child at Christmas than a special Christmas story book. Find out what Mog gets up to in this Christmas book that they'll treasure forever.

My third choice is the now classic tale of The Gruffalo. Some books are just perfect and you'll all love the deceptively simple story of a mouse who has to outwit the dreaded Gruffalo if he is not to end up on a piece of toast.

Listen to a Reading of Tiger Who Came to Tea

I'll wager that you'll be spell-bound. The book is perfect and you can take a look at some of the brilliant illustrations and get a flavor of the text by taking a look at this video.

The story of the Tiger Who Came to Tea is beautifully narrated with the help of illustrations from the book. Pity the video doesn't credit the reader by name.