Tea with Oliver

Reviewed by: Connie Smith - Breakwater School, Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 4, 2017

Review

"Tea with Oliver" is written and illustrated by Milka Song. The illustrations are captioned, outlined in black and fairly light colored. The expression of the characters is simple but revealing and expressive. Oliver the cat wishes to have tea with someone. A mouse, named Philbert, is willing to have tea with Oliver but is too shy and hides underneath Oliver's couch. Philbert, attempting to gain Oliver's attention, first writes Oliver an invitation to have tea and pushes it out onto the floor. Oliver doesn't see the note and promptly sweeps it back under the couch. Next Philbert tries sending the tea invitation by making it into a paper airplane. But Oliver thinks it's only a bug and brushes it away. Finally, Oliver's friends arrive and announce they're having a party at his house, but no one is the least bit interested in having tea. And, to top it all off, as Oliver tries to entice his visitors to have tea by bringing out a trayful of teacups, he gets bumped by a "cha-cha-ing" guest whereby the teacups all go smashing onto the floor. Oliver is ready to give up when, lying down on the floor, he is able to see Philbert underneath the couch. This time, Philbert introduces himself personally and hands the written tea invitation to Oliver. This is a "clever" short story about the friendship between Oliver the cat and Philbert the mouse. It begs to be read several times over and will leave it's readers smiling with a satisfying ending.

Overall Book Score: very good