Tea Party Rules

I don't care how busy your social calendar is, 

do not miss this tea party!

In Tea Party Rules, Ame Dyckman and K.G. Campbell have created an engaging and funny story that imparts some serious wisdom. 

You can skip my review below and go straight to Goodreads'. If you'd like to partake in my rainy day fun, read away!

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I'm going to a tea party and I need a fancy outfit!  (Tea party means fancy dress party where I come from.)  This might not be easy, I head for the hills, literally and figuratively, in the summer and move in with my parents, who live in the mountains on the side of a former volcano (if you walk out the front door, there are only two ways to go - up or down).  

So, here I am in my childhood home, looking for just the right dress...

Maybe this one!  

I wore this back in the 80's (can you guess?) as a Maid-of-Honor in my sister's wedding.  

Yes, she loved me, honest.  

It was just the style.

Maybe the one!

 I made her wear it three years later.  

Yes, I loved her, too. 

It was just the style.

One of my mother's dresses?  ...and a hat?

Now I need a friend!

I've invited my mother's teddy bear -- for which my daughter has made a nice brown suit because he is very old and his fur is just not what it should be any more.  His name is Teddy.  I have also invited Leppie, another of my mother's stuffed animals.  

These two animals were well loved by my mother and her three sisters.

I gathered two of our old chairs...and the china...and some cookies and tea. All set. READ.

Tea Party Rules 

by Ame Dyckman and K.G. Campbell  

is awesome fun!

A lovely and perfectly-set tea party awaits, in a garden of course. This well-staged tea party, set by a young girl, includes a doll and her bear. Unexpectedly, the tea party is crashed by an uninvited guest, an uninvited guest who smells some very yummy freshly-baked cookies when out wandering the forest.

This poor intruder does not know what he is in for - cookies and tea are yummy, BUT tea parties have rules and lots of them. What ensues is a funny, wonderful romp that culminates is the best fun of all.  Tea Party Rules has an ending sure to surprise and please.  Sometimes tea party rules become tea parties rule!  

I'll join in the fun!

Ame Dyckman once again reminds us that unexpected things, like guests and friendships, are often the best.  Ame's books also remind us to break out of our mold and be open to life around us. 

K.G. Campbell's light and whimsical illustrations and color palate capture a summer tea party perfectly.  He brings the reader right into this wonderful scene and helps ensure he or she stays on the inside of the joke -- all you need to do is look at the expression on the bear cub's face.  

This is going to be one fun read aloud.