Tea Rex

Title: Tea Rex
Author: Molly Idle
Illustrator: Molly Idle
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Publication Date: April 9th, 2013
Genre/Format: Fantasy/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: Some tea parties are for grown-ups.
Some are for girls.But this tea party is for a very special guest.And it is important to follow some rules . . .like providing comfortable chairs,and good conversation,and yummy food. But sometimes that is not enough for special guests,especially when their manners are more Cretaceous than gracious . . .
Introducing Tea Rex, a guest that just about any child would love to have to tea!
What I Think: Can you imagine having afternoon tea and your guest is a dinosaur? We just read Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallan and I think it would match so well with Tea Rex. Peanut and I had a great conversation about how Tyrannosaurus' friends helped him learn to be less disruptive in their classroom. But inviting Tyrannosaurus to tea and hoping he would have manners for that is a different story. 
     Over the summer, Peanut got to attend Nerd Camp Junior and listen to Kelly DiPucchio speak. She talked to the kids about taking a normal, everyday topic and putting a twist into it. She handed out cards with pictures on them and then the kids had to come up with a twist to go with the image on their card. It was pretty fun and I can see how this activity would work really great after reading Tea Rex as well. It would be fun to imagine how a Tyrannosaurus would be able to participate in any of our everyday life experiences.
     Many children are familiar with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie but I love this circular tale. Kids will have fun predicting what is going to happen next and following along with the story. 
     When I took Composition my junior year in high school, we had to write an expository piece explaining how not to do something or how to do something most people wouldn't usually encourage. It was a neat exercise because it allowed us to be a little more creative than simply describing how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something like that. I wrote about how to get kicked it our a movie theater - outlining all the obnoxious things people do at the movies that might get them reprimanded if not kicked out. This writing activity can easily be used after reading this book. Students can outline all the things they need to know when attending afternoon tea but then they can outline all the things not to do at tea. I would love to see kids act this out or draw their own illustrations for this!
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 2
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 2
Read With: Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallan, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (series) by Laura Numeroff, Tea Party Rules by Amy Dyckman
Snatch of Text:

"When hosting an afternoon tea for a special friend ---

greet your guest at the door."

Writing Prompts: Write about what someone needs to do in order to prepare for afternoon tea and/or a guidebook for how to act when you are invited to afternoon tea...or maybe how not to act when you are invited to tea!
Topics Covered: Friendship, Manners

 I *heart* It: