"A Cup of Tea?" by Eric LaBranche and Margaret Anne Suggs

While there are lots of tea-themed picture books about little girls, I came across one on the NetGalley review site recently that stars a young boy and would be perfect for the little guys in our lives whom we're trying to introduce to tea. A rhyming picture book translated from Dutch, A Cup of Tea? is the sweet story of a little boy who is trying to get his parents to play with him. First, his mother comes home from work and he's hoping she'll play with him, but she wants "a nice cup of tea" first. His aunt comes over to visit his mother, and she, too, wants to sit and enjoy a cup of tea.

Finally Daddy comes home from work, and the little boy just knows fun time is about to begin. Alas, Daddy, too, needs "a nice cup of tea." The creative little boy decides to set up a late-night tea party for his parents, but alas, he forgets to make the tea! All's well that ends well, though, as the boy's parents tell him, "instead of having just a plain cup of tea, they said that they'd rather have a special 'cup of me'!"

The book's whimsical illustrations are pleasing on their own, but they are also interspersed with tea dribbles and stains, making an already charming picture book even more so. A Cup of Tea? will be published on October 16, and I think it will appeal to quite a few tea lovers!