The Tiger Who Came to Tea

The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr

The Tiger Who Came to Tea was one of my childhood favourites and one I have not forgotten. The book tells the story of an ordinary little girl called Sophie, who is sitting down to have tea with her mother when there is a knock at the door. They are not expecting anyone and wonder who it could be. Their visitor turns out to be a tiger, who asks to come in to have tea with them because he is hungry; they gladly invite him in.

Judith Kerr did her own illustrations and I think these illustrations really make the book, giving it a sense of normality and homeliness despite the presence of the tiger. It has now been made into a show and, when I saw the production, I was amazed how like the book everything looked but I’m not so sure the songs that have been added really work. The show seemed to make fun of itself too much, losing the matter-of-fact tone and subtle humour of the story.

Sophie’s mother lets the tiger in and they offer him food but he doesn’t just take one sandwich or one cake, he eats them all and then looks around the house for more to eat. Kerr lists items and repeats phrasing, which helps children with learning to read and is likewise ideal for parents reading out loud. It also lends the book a rhythm which adds to the drive to see what comes next.

The tiger drinks everything too – the milk, the beer and “all the water in the tap”. It is definitely not possible to drink all the water in the tap and hence I find this line slightly disappointing. Of course, we are dealing with a book where a live talking tiger knocks on the front door and sits down to tea with a little girl and her mother so this line is perhaps insignificant in making the book’s events seem impossible! The fact that the rest of the book is grounded in reality and routine is, however, what makes the tiger’s visit seem credible, unexpected and surprising, but, almost believable.

The tiger eats and drinks until everything in their house is gone, but is polite enough to thank them for his “nice tea” before going on his way. When Sophie’s father comes home to no supper and hears their story (in the picture he does look slightly disbelieving, I have to say), he offers the suggestion that they go to a café to eat instead.

I always found the idea of going to a restaurant in pyjamas exciting (Sophie is ready for bed, though obviously has had no bath since all the water is gone) and this trip is certainly portrayed as exciting – they walk down the road in the dark where “all the street lamps were lit, and all the cars had their lights on”. This is the only picture that takes up the whole double page hence adding to the excitement of being out in the dark through the contrast – all the other pages have smaller pictures on a white background, so this one really stands out.

When Sophie and her mother go shopping the next day to restock, they also buy “a very big tin of Tiger food, in case the tiger should come to tea again”. This line comes with an accompanying illustration of Sophie holding a tin labelled ‘tiger food’, as if to show what it looks like in case the reader would also like to buy some in order to be prepared for a potential visit from the tiger! Yet on the final page, we learn that the tiger never does return, adding to the sense of mystery and maintaining the magic of the story.

Michael Rosen has said that the tiger could be representative of the threats in Kerr’s past – something that could come at any time and take everything away (she had to escape from Germany aged nine, with her Jewish family just before Hitler came to power). But Kerr has been known to dismiss such claims; after all, it is a children’s story, one that she made up for her own children. It is also one that seems to be timelessly popular and well-loved, continuing to delight its readers almost 50 years after it was first published. Who wouldn’t love a book about a tiger coming to tea?