Emma Lea's First Tea Ceremony

ABOUT Babette Donaldson

Babette Donaldson

Description

Emma Lea is invited to share a Japanese style tea with her friend, Sam, and his mother. 








 
5.0 out of 5 stars Emma Lea's First Tea Ceremony, January 21, 2009
First I must reveal my biases-I adore tea and tea parties and I finally have a grandaughter with whom to share my love affair. That being said, I am a newcomer to the Emma Lea books, but not for long. This third Emma Lea book shows her to be maturing in her experiences as she and her mom learn from their neighbor, Sam, a boy about Emma Lea's age, and his mother about the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. At first Emma Lea expects it to be a tea party like the ones she is used to having at her house, but as she reflects she learns that a tea ceremony and a tea party are actually quite different and that both are wonderful. Babette Donaldson tells this story with a beauty and sparseness that mimics the rituals of the ceremony and Jerianne Van Dijk illustrates the scenes with an impressionistic style, drawing the reader into the folds of Emma Lea's kimono and into the tea house with purity, tranquility, and harmony. Folded away in my attic I have a child's pink kimono given to me more than fifty years ago. I can't wait to share this book and that kimono with Theresa, my own little Emma Lea.

5.0 out of 5 stars Emma Lea's First Tea Ceremony, January 21, 2009
First I must reveal my biases-I adore tea and tea parties and I finally have a grandaughter with whom to share my love affair. That being said, I am a newcomer to the Emma Lea books, but not for long. This third Emma Lea book shows her to be maturing in her experiences as she and her mom learn from their neighbor, Sam, a boy about Emma Lea's age, and his mother about the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. At first Emma Lea expects it to be a tea party like the ones she is used to having at her house, but as she reflects she learns that a tea ceremony and a tea party are actually quite different and that both are wonderful. Babette Donaldson tells this story with a beauty and sparseness that mimics the rituals of the ceremony and Jerianne Van Dijk illustrates the scenes with an impressionistic style, drawing the reader into the folds of Emma Lea's kimono and into the tea house with purity, tranquility, and harmony. Folded away in my attic I have a child's pink kimono given to me more than fifty years ago. I can't wait to share this book and that kimono with Theresa, my own little Emma Lea.