posted on 28 Jun 2021

Tea Party Parade by Nick Sharratt

Here at The Letterpress Project we’re great fans of the Barrington Stoke ‘Little Gems’ series of books. They’re a lovely pocket-sized, colourful treat for young readers and when the author/illustrator is Nick Sharratt then you just know you’re in for something a bit special.

This book is guided for a reading age of 4+ and we’re told:

“This book was inspired by the author’s memory of seeing children in a school playground dressed as slices of cake. They were getting ready for the much loved Children’s Parade, produced by Same Sky, which marks the official opening of the amazing Brighton Festival every May.”

A school playground is full of giant slices of cake and tarts, a huge jug of juice, teapots and cups fit for a giant… what’s going on???

Well, the school is getting ready for the Children’s Parade and these are the costumes the children are going to wear – they’re going to the parade dressed as a tea party and it’s time for rehearsal.

The children all know their ‘teams’ – there’s the Swiss Roll team, the Jam Tart Squad, the Tea Cup Crew, the Sponge Cake Gang and all of them know their parts well and the rehearsal shows their mastery of the choreography.

And, at the end, the teachers are all so pleased with the children that they swap the super-sized costumes for plates of the real thing…….what a treat!

I’m sure most of you reading this will be aware of Nick Sharratt’s wonderful brilliantly coloured illustrations and you wont be disappointed here.

Of course, being one from the Little Gem series, readers are given a little something extra on the inside of the card cover. On this occasion the young reader gets a little ‘spot the differences’ quiz to do once they’ve finished reading the book – or maybe before they begin it……

Published in June 2021 you should be able to get a copy via your local independent bookseller or you can go directly to the Barrington Stoke website to order by post.

 

Terry Potter

June 2021