Tea

TEA PARTIES

There are many books on the how-tos of tea parties for kids, many with thematic or literary twists. Have tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter, for example, or try to amuse Queen Victoria.

	Emilie Barnes’s Let’s Have a Tea Party (Harvest House, 1997) covers everything from invitations to after-tea activities, with instructions for a number of themed teas (among them a “Little Women” tea party and a Pony Club tea). It’s subtitled “Special Celebrations for Little Girls.” For ages 6 and up.
	Stephanie Dunnewind’s Come to Tea (Sterling Publishing, 2003) includes recipes, crafts, games, hints on manners (no fingers in the cups), and descriptions of everything from a Mad Hatter Party to a Teddybear Picnic. For ages 6-10.
	Shozo Sato’s Tea Ceremony (Tuttle Publishing, 2004) in the Asian Arts and Crafts for Creative Kids series explains the history and practice of the Japanese tea ceremony and provides step-by-step instructions for performing one of your own. For ages 9 and up.
	Kim Wilson’s Tea with Jane Austen (Jones Books, 2004) intersperses tea-related Austen quotes with historical information about early 19th-century tea drinking and recipes – a perfect accompaniment to a reading of Pride and Prejudice and a study of all things Jane. For ages 13 and up.
	Dawn Hylton Gottlieb’s Taking Tea with Alice: Looking-Glass Tea Parties and Fanciful Victorian Teas (Benjamin Press, 2008), illustrated with color photographs, provides menus and activity suggestions for Mad-Hatter-style get-togethers. (Find out how to play “Off With Their Heads” Musical Chairs.)
	By Martin Gardener and Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice (W.W. Norton, 1999) is marvelous resource for Alice readers, with extensive and fascinating annotations on the historical, cultural, philosophical, and literary aspects of the text. Many deal with the Mad Hatter and his tea party.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

The quintessential political tea party, of course, took place in Boston on December 16, 1773, and involved a lot of angry colonists and three shiploads of tea. There are many books on this landmark event.

	Pamela Duncan Edwards’s Boston Tea Party (Putnam Juvenile, 2001), a simple description of the crucial events, written in the cumulative style of “This is the House That Jack Built,” and featuring a lot of politically savvy mice. For ages 5-8.
	Russell Freedman’s The Boston Tea Party (Holiday House, 2013) is a compelling 39-page account of the fatal tea-dumping, filled with human interest, quotations, and excitement. (Discover the story of Peter Slater, a 14-year-old apprentice, who sneaked out of his bedroom window to join the action.) For ages 7-10.
	Peter Cook’s You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party! (Franklin Watts, 2013) is one of the catchy You Wouldn’t Want to… series which presents real history with a kid-appealing humorous twist. Here, you’re poor shoemaker, one of nine children, orphaned at the age of 14. You were rejected when you tried to join the British army because you are too short; now you resent the redcoats and hate the British taxes. A great read for ages 7-12.
	Kathleen Krull’s What Was the Boston Tea Party? (Grosset & Dunlap, 2013) is a terrific account of what Krull calls “one of the most powerful protests ever.”  “What a strange tea party,” the book begins. “It took place in near darkness and in almost total silence. It lasted for about three hours. There were no women there, just men, many in their teens.” For ages 8-12.
	The We Were There series is a collection of 36 historical novels, each featuring a pair of children – usually, fairly, a boy and a girl – as the main characters, involved in a key historical event. The books were originally published in the 1950s and 60s, but some have now been reissued by Dover Publications. In Robert N. Webb’s We Were There at the Boston Tea Party (Dover Publications, 2013), young Jeremy and Deliverance Winthrop become involved in a conspiracy leading up to the Boston Tea Party. For ages 9-12.
	Boston wasn’t the only colonial town to host a Revolutionary tea party. Brenda Seabrooke’s The Chester Town Tea Party (Tidewater Publishers, 1991) is a picture-book account of a similar occurrence in Maryland. The story centers around nine-year-old Amanda Wetherby who decides to dress as a boy and go along.  For ages 4-8.
	Anywhere near Boston? Visit the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum to see reconstructions of the famous tea ships. (Visitors can join the protest and pitch their own tea chest overboard.) See the website for information on Boston Tea Party history.
	The Boston Tea Party, 1773 includes an eyewitness account of the event by a participant.