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May I Bring a Friend?
An imaginative boy brings a surprising array of friends to dine at the palace in this Caldecott Medal–winning picture book.
One day, a small boy receives a very special invitation—the King and the Queen have invited him to the castle for tea. He accepts, with one question: “May I bring a friend?”
“Any friend of our friend is welcome here,” says the King. But their guest’s friend turns out to be someone they never expected!
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers’s rhythmic text and the fantastical, jewellike artwork of Beni Montresor have made this book a favorite for more than twenty-five years.
One day, a small boy receives a very special invitation—the King and the Queen have invited him to the castle for tea. He accepts, with one question: “May I bring a friend?”
“Any friend of our friend is welcome here,” says the King. But their guest’s friend turns out to be someone they never expected!
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers’s rhythmic text and the fantastical, jewellike artwork of Beni Montresor have made this book a favorite for more than twenty-five years.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
10 people are currently reading
1657 people want to read
About the author
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
76 books17 followersBeatrice Schenk de Regniers earned a M.Ed from the University of Chicago in 1941. Her first book, The Giant Story, was published in 1953.
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers also wrote under the pseudonym Tamara Kitt.
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers also wrote under the pseudonym Tamara Kitt.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 437 reviews
January 14, 2020
Book Review
May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers is one of those special children's picture books we all must love. And for that, it gets 4+ out of 5 stars from this book lover.
I used this book when I was teaching a class back in college as part of a collection of books on lessons for first graders back in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Imagine being invited to tea by the King and Queen, and having the audacity to ask if you could bring a friend... What could the royal couple do but say yes. And they say yes for several days, all the time our main character bring a new friend from the zoo. And how will they fit in the castle? And what if they need water? And how do they speak? So many questions for children. But it's adorable... full of great pictures and rhymes to help with memory. And in the end, the lessons are fantastic. To teach children to be kind to everyone no matter their differences. Oh... what a fun memory for today.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
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May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers is one of those special children's picture books we all must love. And for that, it gets 4+ out of 5 stars from this book lover.
I used this book when I was teaching a class back in college as part of a collection of books on lessons for first graders back in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Imagine being invited to tea by the King and Queen, and having the audacity to ask if you could bring a friend... What could the royal couple do but say yes. And they say yes for several days, all the time our main character bring a new friend from the zoo. And how will they fit in the castle? And what if they need water? And how do they speak? So many questions for children. But it's adorable... full of great pictures and rhymes to help with memory. And in the end, the lessons are fantastic. To teach children to be kind to everyone no matter their differences. Oh... what a fun memory for today.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
[polldaddy poll=9729544]
[polldaddy poll=9719251]
March 12, 2019
This is a fun poem. I’m happy as the first guest brought to dinner is a giraffe. I do love giraffe’s. So this feels like a lyric poem to me. The artwork uses unconventional colors in some ways. I like this book.
It does make me wonder why the queen and King keep inviting this little boy over for things. Do they love the friends he brings, or are they related to him? Or is he really good at interesting conversation? Who knows. Whatever the case, the king and queen keep inviting this lad over and he asks to bring a friend and they always say yes.
The kids got into this book. They kept guessing who the child would bring to dinner next. The nephew kept wanting to see a gaggle of penguins, which did not happen. The boy, we learn, lives at the zoo, so it makes sense these are his friends. The niece loved seeing the monkeys and she said, “I bet they are throwing poop balls at the king and queen.” Both kids got laughing at that. They go to the zoo a ton, so they know. They both gave this 4 stars. We had a fun time all reading this together.
It does make me wonder why the queen and King keep inviting this little boy over for things. Do they love the friends he brings, or are they related to him? Or is he really good at interesting conversation? Who knows. Whatever the case, the king and queen keep inviting this lad over and he asks to bring a friend and they always say yes.
The kids got into this book. They kept guessing who the child would bring to dinner next. The nephew kept wanting to see a gaggle of penguins, which did not happen. The boy, we learn, lives at the zoo, so it makes sense these are his friends. The niece loved seeing the monkeys and she said, “I bet they are throwing poop balls at the king and queen.” Both kids got laughing at that. They go to the zoo a ton, so they know. They both gave this 4 stars. We had a fun time all reading this together.
August 2, 2011
I think this suffered a little from being read so close to What Do You Say, Dear?, which has a similar wacky sense of humor and a not-dissimilar rhythm. But where that had a clear purpose, this is more surreal. A child is invited to tea with the king and queen; he asks if he can bring a friend. The friend turns out to be a giraffe, fortunately a polite one. The child is invited back for successive meals, each time accompanied by an increasingly wild animal. There was some cognitive dissonance for me between the illustrations, in which the king and queen look rather distressed or shocked, and the text in which they speak politely. I suppose if a guest brings an ill-mannered person/animal to dinner you have to put a brave face on it. But they keep inviting the kid back so presumably they really don't mind? I don't know. Perhaps this wouldn't bother a child at all, but I felt like I was missing something.
It was an okay book, but there are several similar ones I prefer: Sesyle Joslin's that I mentioned already, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Alligators All Around, or for Montersor's illustrations I preferred The Witches of Venice.
It was an okay book, but there are several similar ones I prefer: Sesyle Joslin's that I mentioned already, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Alligators All Around, or for Montersor's illustrations I preferred The Witches of Venice.
May 21, 2012
Very cute, fun story about a child who is invited to various events (tea, Halloween party, etc.) by a very amiable king and queen. The child always wants to bring a friend, and the queen and king are happy to oblige, even when their events become a bit of a menagerie.
This is a classic picture book (from the 1960s) that, I feel, stands the test of time. Though I loved the old-fashioned charm of the illustrations, the imagination and animals, and the fun rhyme scheme, should still appeal to children today.
I really, really liked this book (except for the final illustration which made me a bit sad, though I don't think it was meant to.)
This is a classic picture book (from the 1960s) that, I feel, stands the test of time. Though I loved the old-fashioned charm of the illustrations, the imagination and animals, and the fun rhyme scheme, should still appeal to children today.
I really, really liked this book (except for the final illustration which made me a bit sad, though I don't think it was meant to.)
February 7, 2018
May I Bring A Friend by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers was such a cute book and throughout the whole time reading it, it just a brought a smile to my face. Reading it made me realize why the book had received a Caldecott Medal for it! I loved how accepting the King and Queen were of all of the little boy's friends. This book expressed great friendship and acceptance, but also acceptance in diversity as well since the friends were all so different. I loved how the animal friends in turn wanted the King and Queen to be invited to their home instead.
Another reason why I loved the book was the fun tone of it and how it all rhymed and flowed together so harmoniously. Throughout the book it almost felt like a song and I found myself singing it aloud. The book had a repetitive paragraph every time the little boy would ask to invite a new friend over to the King and Queen's house that reminded me of a chorus to a song.
Something I found different in the book from other books that was interesting was that some pages were really colorful and some pages were painted in black and white. The book was so fun to read that I felt like great amounts of color weren't even needed to stay interested in the book. Colors were mainly used only for pages that one of the little boy's friends were in. I'm so excited to incorporate this book into one of my lessons with my students when I become a teacher because it teaches a great message of how accepting a friendship should be and how accepting you should be of everyone no matter their differences.
Another reason why I loved the book was the fun tone of it and how it all rhymed and flowed together so harmoniously. Throughout the book it almost felt like a song and I found myself singing it aloud. The book had a repetitive paragraph every time the little boy would ask to invite a new friend over to the King and Queen's house that reminded me of a chorus to a song.
Something I found different in the book from other books that was interesting was that some pages were really colorful and some pages were painted in black and white. The book was so fun to read that I felt like great amounts of color weren't even needed to stay interested in the book. Colors were mainly used only for pages that one of the little boy's friends were in. I'm so excited to incorporate this book into one of my lessons with my students when I become a teacher because it teaches a great message of how accepting a friendship should be and how accepting you should be of everyone no matter their differences.
May 10, 2020
May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (Atheneum 1964) (Fiction - Children's) is a joy from beginning to end. Even to one who has left childhood far, far behind, this book is laugh-out-loud funny! This is one of the books that places absurdity at a level where even beginning readers and listeners can recognize the joke. The story (written charmingly in poem form) begins as follows:
"The king and the queen invited me
to come to their house on Sunday for tea.
I told the queen, and the queen told the king
I had a friend I wanted to bring.
The king told the queen, "My dear, my dear,
any friend of our friend is welcome here."
So I brought my friend....."
And off we go on a rib-tickling state visit.
This is a wonderful work of art!
My rating: 9.5/10, finished 1964.
"The king and the queen invited me
to come to their house on Sunday for tea.
I told the queen, and the queen told the king
I had a friend I wanted to bring.
The king told the queen, "My dear, my dear,
any friend of our friend is welcome here."
So I brought my friend....."
And off we go on a rib-tickling state visit.
This is a wonderful work of art!
My rating: 9.5/10, finished 1964.
January 27, 2016
The royal setting and main characters are nothing unique here, but the rhyming is so well done and fun, it is virtually perfect. And it nicely complements the unexpected and playful escapades. The pencil illustrations are unusually detailed and some of the expressions on their faces are hilarious!
January 14, 2012
A young boy receives invitations to visit the king and queen every day of the week and brings a different animal guest each day. The story just wasn't that engaging to me and the pink backgrounds on the illustrations were strange. Caldecott winner.
February 10, 2017
A favorite since childhood. There is something about the repetition of the story, and the rhymes, and the silliness, combined with the fussily detailed illustrations. It just makes me smile! It makes my kids smile! It's just so charming!
August 11, 2019
Colorfully detailed illustrations showing a king and queen inviting a little boy to tea each day of the week. Each time, the boy asks to bring a friend and permission is granted. The "friend" each time is a large animal from the zoo, where they all decide to have tea together.
May 9, 2020
This has been one of my favorite books since childhood. I wasn't a kid who loved animals by any means, but I loved the idea of a child being invited to dine at a castle, and thought it was pretty darn funny that the king and queen never turned away a single one of the boy's bizarre friends. I was also oddly drawn to the color scheme of the illustrations and the switches back and forth from plain black and white pictures to full-color ones. I also think the story has the perfect ending to satisfy preschool readers. I read this book recently with a group of three-year-old pre-K students, and even though it wasn't familiar to them, they, too seemed to enjoy it. This book pairs well not only with Many Moons, but also with A Sick Day for Amos McGee.
Read during preschool class visit on 12/14/11: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Preschool Story Time on 4/4/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K/K Class Visit on 3/15/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Pre-K Class Visit on 5/4/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Pajama Story Time on 6/27/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K class visit on 9/24/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at rec. center class visit on 4/17/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K class visit on 4/18/13:
http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at preschool story time at the Redland Baptist church on 3/29/17: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
Read at a royalty-themed family story time at my house on 7/12/19: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
Read during preschool class visit on 12/14/11: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Preschool Story Time on 4/4/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K/K Class Visit on 3/15/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Pre-K Class Visit on 5/4/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Pajama Story Time on 6/27/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K class visit on 9/24/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at rec. center class visit on 4/17/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read during Pre-K class visit on 4/18/13:
http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at preschool story time at the Redland Baptist church on 3/29/17: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
Read at a royalty-themed family story time at my house on 7/12/19: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
March 26, 2016
This story illustrated by Montresor was the 1965 Caldecott Medal winner. This story tells the tale of a boy who received a very special invitation, from the King and Queen, to have tea in the palace. He accepts, asking if he could bring a friend, to which the King and Queen Grant permission. For a week, each day the King and Queen continue to invite the boy to the castle for lunch, pie, among other things, and their boy accepts but always asking if he could bring a friend. The boy, King, Queen, and whatever friend or friends are present have a great time. Until one day the boy received an invitation from the King and Queen to have tea at the castle, to which he answers that that time they should come too the City Zoo to meet them instead.
Personally I found this book pretty fun to read. It has crazy situations and crazy friends to be meeting up with the Royals. Comedy is always great when you choose a book, for you find it interesting and devour it fast. The story also incorporated rhyme and exquisite drawings of the boy, his friends and the King and Queen, and the situations they got themselves into. It is considered a major Faux Pas to invite people to an event you have been invited to, but children do not understand these societal rules just yet.
This book contains humor in its pages, in addition to the descriptive paintings, making it that much more interesting for children. The pictures are colorful and depict exactly what the words are saying, further captivating the child’s attention. In my online search looking for the story, I came across the lesson plans so this is a great choice to make when looking for a book for children
Personally I found this book pretty fun to read. It has crazy situations and crazy friends to be meeting up with the Royals. Comedy is always great when you choose a book, for you find it interesting and devour it fast. The story also incorporated rhyme and exquisite drawings of the boy, his friends and the King and Queen, and the situations they got themselves into. It is considered a major Faux Pas to invite people to an event you have been invited to, but children do not understand these societal rules just yet.
This book contains humor in its pages, in addition to the descriptive paintings, making it that much more interesting for children. The pictures are colorful and depict exactly what the words are saying, further captivating the child’s attention. In my online search looking for the story, I came across the lesson plans so this is a great choice to make when looking for a book for children
October 22, 2016
Book summary: This is an award-winning book about a king and a queen who invite a boy to their events. Every time the boy asks the king and queen if he can bring a friend. The king and queen always respond saying that the more is merrier. The boy brings his friend which is....a zoo animal. Each time the zoo animal is different, he brings a giraffe, a hippo, lions, monkeys, a seal, all different kinds of animals. Then the boy asks the king and queen to come to an event with his friends...at the zoo!
Grade level: K-4
Appropriate classroom use: The students can do activities with zoo animals and identify what each animal in the story are and what letter their name starts with. Then they can practice their reading with this book and do a lesson on zoo animals. This book has some rhyming in it so the students can also practice with that.
Indiv. students who benefit: Students who would like to read a funny light heart-ed book about animals.
Small group use: Students can get into literature circles based on their favorite type of zoo animal so the students in each group have something in common.
Whole class use: This would be a fun book to read aloud. As the teacher is reading students can pick out those words that rhyme and also at the end of the book, there could be an order of events quiz or discussion to check for understanding.
Related books: Other picture fiction books, caldecott medal winners, other books by the author.
Multimedia connections available: Hardcover, paperback, and audible are available.
Grade level: K-4
Appropriate classroom use: The students can do activities with zoo animals and identify what each animal in the story are and what letter their name starts with. Then they can practice their reading with this book and do a lesson on zoo animals. This book has some rhyming in it so the students can also practice with that.
Indiv. students who benefit: Students who would like to read a funny light heart-ed book about animals.
Small group use: Students can get into literature circles based on their favorite type of zoo animal so the students in each group have something in common.
Whole class use: This would be a fun book to read aloud. As the teacher is reading students can pick out those words that rhyme and also at the end of the book, there could be an order of events quiz or discussion to check for understanding.
Related books: Other picture fiction books, caldecott medal winners, other books by the author.
Multimedia connections available: Hardcover, paperback, and audible are available.
June 6, 2018
I remember lots of different animals. I think I used to wonder how such a little boy could make friends with animals.
4/27/10 & 4/29 & 5/3 & 5/5: This book sprang off the shelf and back into memory. I thought I would try it for storytime. The pictures--particularly the colors were what grabbed their attention first. Then waiting to see what animals would come next kept their attention in a book that would otherwise drag for preschool age or in a storytime setting. It went well each time. But the best reading was when I read it for my 7-year old niece. She was the best audience for it.
I didn't realize before that this was a Caldecott winner.
2/13/13 & 2/14/13: Decided to go with an Odd Friends theme around Valentine's, and as I hadn't done this book in Utah, yet, I went with it. Both groups loved it. The larger more noisy group seemed to get into it more. But they enjoyed it. One older dad and his 4 daughters were new to ST, and he wasn't familiar with this particular one; said he really liked it.
5/14/14: Did a Miss Heidi's Mom storytime theme, since her birthday was coming up. The kids liked the book. Except for the boy you could tell didn't want to be there. :-)
5/15/17: Quickly grabbed this for Movement Storytime. Then realize it was Mom's bday today! Meant to be. The kids loved it and it filled time since I had a couple of shorter songs.
6/6/18 Used in Q theme because of the Queen. The little girl (new) smiled a lot at all the animals coming.
4/27/10 & 4/29 & 5/3 & 5/5: This book sprang off the shelf and back into memory. I thought I would try it for storytime. The pictures--particularly the colors were what grabbed their attention first. Then waiting to see what animals would come next kept their attention in a book that would otherwise drag for preschool age or in a storytime setting. It went well each time. But the best reading was when I read it for my 7-year old niece. She was the best audience for it.
I didn't realize before that this was a Caldecott winner.
2/13/13 & 2/14/13: Decided to go with an Odd Friends theme around Valentine's, and as I hadn't done this book in Utah, yet, I went with it. Both groups loved it. The larger more noisy group seemed to get into it more. But they enjoyed it. One older dad and his 4 daughters were new to ST, and he wasn't familiar with this particular one; said he really liked it.
5/14/14: Did a Miss Heidi's Mom storytime theme, since her birthday was coming up. The kids liked the book. Except for the boy you could tell didn't want to be there. :-)
5/15/17: Quickly grabbed this for Movement Storytime. Then realize it was Mom's bday today! Meant to be. The kids loved it and it filled time since I had a couple of shorter songs.
6/6/18 Used in Q theme because of the Queen. The little girl (new) smiled a lot at all the animals coming.
November 21, 2008
Synopsis
A young boy is invited to tea by the king and queen several days in a row. Each day he brings an animal friend. The king and queen enjoy this so much that on the final day they had tea at the city zoo.
Reviews
This repetitive, rhyming story is very sweet. The king and queen are gracious hosts and the boy uses his best manners. The silly pictures do betray the book's 1960's roots. But the story is so sweet and timeless that parents will want to read it repeatedly to their children.
Critical Reviews
Good Media/Good Kids
This review measures books by their ethicality. Fortunately this book demonstrates a great deal of virtues and contians no violence, cruelty, rudeness, religion/spirituality or stereotypes.
Amazon.com
This review essentially states that this book is a Caldecott winner and a classic. It does give a nod to the plot, but its status as an early award winner it the major selling point.
Other Bibliographic Information
Published in 1964 by Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing Division
48 pages
A young boy is invited to tea by the king and queen several days in a row. Each day he brings an animal friend. The king and queen enjoy this so much that on the final day they had tea at the city zoo.
Reviews
This repetitive, rhyming story is very sweet. The king and queen are gracious hosts and the boy uses his best manners. The silly pictures do betray the book's 1960's roots. But the story is so sweet and timeless that parents will want to read it repeatedly to their children.
Critical Reviews
Good Media/Good Kids
This review measures books by their ethicality. Fortunately this book demonstrates a great deal of virtues and contians no violence, cruelty, rudeness, religion/spirituality or stereotypes.
Amazon.com
This review essentially states that this book is a Caldecott winner and a classic. It does give a nod to the plot, but its status as an early award winner it the major selling point.
Other Bibliographic Information
Published in 1964 by Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing Division
48 pages
April 5, 2015
In this 1965 Caldecott Medal Winner the narrator is fortunate enough to be invited to tea by the king and queen, and naturally, he asks if he may bring a friend. The royal monarchs agree, and this results in several invitations to the narrator and several visits from a giraffe, monkeys, even a seal. The animals and narrator repay the ever-patient king and queen with an invitation to join them at the zoo. I was particularly impressed that the king and queen didn't become upset at all the problems caused by the visitors, and they seem to be having a good time in a way not usually associated with royalty. The colors of the illustrations are bright, and the images show smiling faces on all the characters, making this one quite popular with young readers who must surely harbor a desire to bring an animal or two to tea or for a visit as well. Readers never learn what makes the narrator so appealing to the king and queen. Perhaps it's his constant stream of visitors or perhaps it's his complete innocence about how to treat the two rulers--just like anyone else.
April 15, 2013
May I bring a Friend is a story of how a young boy brings his ‘friends’ to eat with the king and queen, the funny twist is that his friends happen to be animals at the zoo. The book rhymed continually throughout making the book very easy and fun to read. The illustrations were very fun and entertaining. The illustrator used black and white while when King and Queen were focus of the page but, when the boy and his friends came to visit the page bursted with color. This emphasized the surprise of each animal he brought to the palace. Also what was unique about the illustrations was how the illustrator only used bright pink, orange, yellow, purple and red. None of these colors are the actual colors of the animals, for instance the giraffe the boy brought to the palace was orange. These colors made the book very warm and joyful to read.
November 21, 2017
May I bring a friend? by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers is about a young boy who gets invited by the King and Queen to have tea, breakfast, dinner and pie. Each time the little boy asks them if he can bring a friend, and each time the King and Queen say “My dear, my dear, any friend of our friend is welcome here.” Each time he brings a new animal to the King and Queen’s with him. The text in this picture book rhymes and repeats itself and the illustrations were in black and white drawings when the King and Queen were talking to the little boy and then each page had vibrant pictures when his friends were revealed. The way that the text and pictures were laid out made it more interesting and exciting to read.
This was a book that I used to read when I was younger and I think that it could be a fun book to send home with children to read with their families!
This was a book that I used to read when I was younger and I think that it could be a fun book to send home with children to read with their families!
March 6, 2013
This might possibly be the greatest picture book of all time.
This king and queen are just hanging out at the castle and every single day, they are just like, "why don't we invite that kid over to the castle to hang out?"
So, everyday they invite him, and everyday the kid asks if he can invite a friend. And they are always like, "yeah."
And the friend is a giraffe! Or, a seal. Or whatever. And the king and queen respond with poetry, only sometimes the poetry doesn't all fit within the established pentameter. But Beatrice Schenk de Regniers doesn't care about rhythm, so she just throws in the extra lines. This would seem illogical, but no. It makes this book even better.
This is the greatest.
This king and queen are just hanging out at the castle and every single day, they are just like, "why don't we invite that kid over to the castle to hang out?"
So, everyday they invite him, and everyday the kid asks if he can invite a friend. And they are always like, "yeah."
And the friend is a giraffe! Or, a seal. Or whatever. And the king and queen respond with poetry, only sometimes the poetry doesn't all fit within the established pentameter. But Beatrice Schenk de Regniers doesn't care about rhythm, so she just throws in the extra lines. This would seem illogical, but no. It makes this book even better.
This is the greatest.
April 13, 2015
An interesting book, filled with short verses, lots of colorful illustrations and an interesting bunch of friends, joining their pal to visit the King and Queen. We've read this one a couple of times.
This book was selected as one of the books for the April 2015 - Quarterly Caldecott discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.
This book was selected as one of the books for the April 2015 - Quarterly Caldecott discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.
October 22, 2011
This 1965 Caldecott Award winning title is part of the mini study I have been doing this weekend on past winners of the award. Flat presentation of scenery (where carpets are circular vs. eliptoid) and solid block color backgrounds (used to communicate mayhem in this work vs. a variety of color used to introduce the animal the boy is bringing to meet the King and Queen) allow animals to pop off of the page. Light verse begs for read-aloud. I see tones of Amos McGee in this early work that would win the award some 45 years before the Stead title.
March 12, 2013
It is amazing to see how much picture books have changed...
This cute rhyming and predictable picture book tells the story of a boy who is always invited over the King and Queen’s where he always asks to bring his animal friends. By the end of his story the three humans go to visit the boy’s friends in the zoo. The illustrations very much remind me of an old fashioned cartoon by using very bright colors. For children a craft idea would be to let them create their own brightly colored menagerie.
This cute rhyming and predictable picture book tells the story of a boy who is always invited over the King and Queen’s where he always asks to bring his animal friends. By the end of his story the three humans go to visit the boy’s friends in the zoo. The illustrations very much remind me of an old fashioned cartoon by using very bright colors. For children a craft idea would be to let them create their own brightly colored menagerie.
May 21, 2016
This book is all about a little boy/girl who is invited to hangout with a king and queen. Each time they are asked, they ask if they can bring a friend. This book rhymes. By the end of the book, the king and queen were invited to hangout with their friends. They ended up hanging out at the zoo , because that's where all their friends were. They were animals. I thought this book was cute, but also very repetitive.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2018
This was delightful. While the illustrations are big old-fashioned, they're still loads of fun, and I love that the king and queen are just as delighted by all the friends as the narrator is, and that eventually the narrator returns the favor. It's just plain fun, and that's perfect.
ETA: Yep, still fun.
ETA: Yep, still fun.
September 23, 2018
The 1965 Caldecott Winner
-Utilizes mostly couplet style rhyming to tell the story of a boy invited to visit the king and queen; the boy always asks to bring a friend, to which the monarchs happily consent, even if the friend is a lion, seal, giraffe, hippo, monkeys or an elephant;
Very cute story;
good for read aloud
-Utilizes mostly couplet style rhyming to tell the story of a boy invited to visit the king and queen; the boy always asks to bring a friend, to which the monarchs happily consent, even if the friend is a lion, seal, giraffe, hippo, monkeys or an elephant;
Very cute story;
good for read aloud
February 9, 2019
I think my main problem with this book is that the little boy never actually asks if he may bring a friend; he simply states that he has a friend he'd like to bring.
2/9/2019 update: I'm also not a fan of the rhyme scheme.
2/9/2019 update: I'm also not a fan of the rhyme scheme.
July 22, 2015
This is the sort of book which leads the child to anticipate what will come next. The 'friends' are unpredictable and the story funny. Overall while it's not my favorite artwork and some of the rhyming doesn't quite work out, it's still a funny story and very enjoyable to read.
February 21, 2017
An invitation from the King and Queen for tea brings about several surprises as the invitations continue and the many different friends that are allowed to attend the gatherings, and in the end a change of plans leads to a wonderful outcome for the King and Queen in return for their hospitality.
June 24, 2016
Interesting to see variant illustrations, but they are not as good as the original.
October 9, 2023
Children's Picture Books
Published in the 1960's
Rhyming text
A boy has been invited to tea by the king and queen and decides to bring 'friends' along.
A bit silly. Very outdated.
Published in the 1960's
Rhyming text
A boy has been invited to tea by the king and queen and decides to bring 'friends' along.
A bit silly. Very outdated.
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