The Tiger Who Came to Tea

The Tiger Who Came to Tea is an absolute treasure! This charming, beautifully illustrated book has captivated my child’s imagination and become a favorite in our bedtime routine. The story is delightfully simple: a polite yet ravenous tiger visits Sophie and her mother, eats everything in sight, and then leaves. It’s quirky, fun, and packed with a sense of wonder that children adore.The illustrations are warm and engaging, and the tiger is drawn in a way that feels friendly rather than scary—perfect for little ones. While the plot may be simple, that’s exactly what makes it so special. It feels like a slice of a child’s imagination brought to life.This book has been a classic for decades for a reason. It’s ideal for young kids, easy to read aloud, and great for sparking creativity. I also loved the nostalgic charm it brought to storytime—I remember reading it when I was a child, and I’m thrilled to share it with my own family.Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a timeless picture book!

Loved this book as a child. It has stood the test of time and is still a great read for grandchildren. No faddy, weird 'arty' images that scream style over content just lovely, honest illustrations that are clear and simple and tell the story.

Classic for all children. Love this story, remember it being part of my childhood. One that can be shared for years

Fantastic choice for your children bed time story reading, lovely story great illustrations and a good price, and it was delivered very quickly too.

Another classic that I used to read to my daughters.I bought this ( and others) for my neighbours' twin daughters.I hope he has as much fun reading this classic to his girls as I used to.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr is a charming classic that has enchanted our family for years. The story of an unexpected visitor—a friendly, tea-loving tiger—brings a sense of magic and fun to every reading. My son adores the tiger's mischievous yet endearing antics, and the illustrations perfectly capture the warmth of the story.The simple but captivating plot sparks the imagination, while the humor makes it a joy for both children and adults alike. It’s a book that never grows old, making it the perfect addition to any child’s bookshelf. We’ve read it countless times, and it never fails to bring smiles and laughter. Truly a timeless treasure!

Perfect gift

Judith Kerr tells the delightful picture book story for the under-5s of a tiger who invites himself to tea with Sophie and her mother and eats them out of house and home before leaving, never to return. The story is told in the third person from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. But as we shall see the story is really Sophie’s story. It is Sophie’s imaginative interpretation of what we may suppose “really happened”. It is told in her language and within the limitations of her understanding.Through the “willing suspension of disbelief” as Coleridge described the phenomenon by which a reader enters into the imaginative world of a writer, the notion of an English speaking tiger being invited into someone’s home and consuming a large quantity of food and drink is perfectly reasonable and acceptable. It is, however, a basic tenet of all fiction that the world created by an author should be logically coherent. The reader must be able to recognise that what happens in the story is possible within the parameters of the story if not in actual reality. Anything not consistent with the internal logic of the story is either a mistake or a clue to something else going on. There are several such “mistakes” in The Tiger Who Came to Tea. But these mistakes turn out, on closer inspection, to be authorial clues, first to the fact that the story is the product of Sophie’s imagination and, secondly, to enable the reader to reconstruct, partially at least, the story behind the story. The events in the story if told from the mother’s point of view would have been rather different, and mundane.The first clue that all is not what it seems occurs when it is said that the tiger drank “all the water in the tap”. This strange expression can be interpreted to mean simply that the tiger drank a large quantity of tap water directly from the tap in the kitchen sink. However, after the tiger has left and Sophie is preparing to have her bath it is stated that she couldn’t have a bath because “the tiger had drunk all the water in the tap”. This is clearly impossible. There would only have been no water if the local water authorities had turned off the supply but there is no reason to suppose this to have been the case. In the child’s imagination it must have seemed as though the tiger had drunk so much that there could not possibly be any water left for a bath.The second clue is a visual one. Daddy decides that the family should go to a local café to eat. Sophie is already dressed only in her nightdress ready to go to bed, but instead of putting her day clothes back on, she merely puts a coat over her nightdress and a pair of wellingtons to go out on what appears to be a chilly autumn evening. This is too improbable to make sense. It is a clue that the visit to the café occurs only in Sophie’s imagination. There is further evidence for this when we are told that the meal consisted of “sausages and chips and ice cream”. This is a child’s idea of a “lovely supper” but does not seem a likely menu for a family dinner. This is the third clue.The fourth clue occurs the following day. Sophie and her mother go shopping and among the items they purchase is “a very big tin of Tiger Food”. Of course, there is no such thing. If it were possible to buy a tin of tiger food from the supermarket or corner shop, it would imply that semi domesticated tigers are a commonplace in the world created by the author but that would undermine the basis on which the story is founded, viz. that a tiger coming to tea is unique and surprising.The other clues are, first, the language used which is clearly a child’s way of speaking, for example, “Daddy’s beer’; the frequent use of the conjunctions “and” and “but”, and even the onomatopoeic “Owp!” Secondly, there are pictures that do not fit the text of the story. Before the story even begins we see Sophie riding on the back of the tiger in broad daylight. This does not happen in the story but indicates what the child imagines.From the clues the author has provided we may suppose that what really happened was that a stray cat came to the door – perhaps the one in the picture of the family walking to the café that looks like a miniature tiger – and they let him into the house and fed him. This simple incident was exaggerated into Sophie’s imaginative story. The tin of tiger food is just a tin of cat food, in case the creature came back. The pictures where Sophie is showing affection to the tiger perhaps indicates that she is lonely as an only child and perhaps with few friends.If there is a hidden message in the story, it is definitely not aimed at children. There is no authorial voice saying more or less explicitly, “You should behave like the good little girl in my story”. The message is perhaps aimed at the grown ups and is, “Don’t inhibit children’s gift of imagination”. The parents in the story accept Sophie’s version of events without quibble. Reality can wait.