Book Review: The Toad Who Loved Tea by Faiz Kermani

Title: The Toad Who Loved Tea

Author: Faiz Kermani

Illustrator: Korey Scott 

Publisher: Matador

Publication Date: 28^th January 2018

Pages: 48

Format read: Paperback

Source: Author supplied

 "The crowd clapped as Tungtang sipped the tea elegantly from a tiny porcelain cup. They sighed as she gently swirled the tea in her mouth. They applauded as she rolled her eyes, and they cheered as she rocked from side to side, trilling "Why, this is toad-ily tea-licious!" What happens when you brew together a toad who likes tea, a cruel crow, snobby customers and an ancient prediction?

A strong, fragrant story full of unexpected adventures that will take you and Tungtang, the tea-loving toad, from a muddy pond to Queen Catherine's Olde English Tea Shoppe for a real clash of cultures. Tungtang's story of her discovery of tea and humanity will change her (and the way you look at tea) forever. The Toad Who Loved Tea is the hilarious tale of a tea-loving toad's unconventional journey from a muddy pond to an elegant tea shop.

Tungtang always thought of herself as an adventurous toad until one day a nasty crow laughs at her stories of adventure and tells her real adventure is going far away to somewhere you have never been. Tungtang decides that if she is going to be a real adventurer she needs to something different, something unheard of. She is going into the town!

Grandpa Nutbelch tells her about Dustysox the Great and his prophecy about a toad that goes on a journey and achieves great fame among the humans. Tungtang believes she is the one to fulfill the prophecy.

Once she gets to the town she takes up residence in a tea shop. She loves the smell and taste of all the different tea blends. She causes quite a lot of trouble in the shop during the day, stealing buns and upsetting tea cups but she always manages to escape detection. All this disruption is causing problems for the tea shop owners and the shop may have to be closed down. Will Tungtang be caught? Will the shop be closed down? How will Tungtang fulfill the prophecy?

This was a fun book to read and Tungtang was such a cheeky toad stealing sticky buns by day and hiding in the storeroom and rolling in the tea at night. Names like Lady Lobsterpants, Dustysox and Muddybum are sure to elicit a few giggles. Tungtang’s observations of humans and their ways was also quite amusing.

The illustrations by Korey Scott were colourful and brought the story to life.

The Toad Who Loved Tea is a wonderful story about adventure and discovering your true talent quite often lies in the things you love doing.

Written as a first introduction to chapter books with full page illustrations it is best recommended for ages 3 -7 years

 

In his free time, Faiz loves writing funny children's books, especially frog-themed ones (frog-friendly fiction).

These include My Alien Penfriend, Golbo the Spider's Amazing Vacuum Cleaner Adventure, The Frog Who Loved Mathematics, The Frog in the Skyscraper, The Frog Who Was Blue and The Toad Who Loved Tea.

His books have won awards in the US and UK and have been translated into French, German, Spanish and Russian. He is involved in various literacy projects with schools and is always happy to hear from anyone on ideas for educational collaborations.

You can read my review of The Frog Who was Blue here