Emma Lea's Tea With Daddy

Emma Lea’s Tea With Daddy is one in a series by Babette Donaldson about the same little girl, all of which involve tea. Although I’m not into it myself, I understand there’s now an entire tea culture in America and this series helps to introduce it to children.

Even though tea isn’t my thing, I found this book about a child managing to prepare a fancy meal for her father to be delightful. In the long run, the book is more about family relationships than the beverage they share, and I’m beginning to get the impression that’s true of the tea culture as a whole. It encourages good manners, too.

The illustrations by Jerianne Van Dijk do an excellent job of expressing the warm feeling of the story and the simple recipe at the end adds to the appeal.

Some other books in the series are Emma Lea’s First Tea Party, Emma Lea’s Magic Teapot, and Emma Lea’s First Tea Ceremony.

For people who love tea and want children to learn about the tea culture the best place to buy them is in a local tea shop. The books are also available online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, but not in bookstores.