Tea with an Old Giant

by Jane Yolen, Paolo Domeniconi (Illustrator)

Overview

The old giant at the top of the hill is lonely. He has no one to play games with, no one to read to, and no one to drink tea with. When he ventures into the nearby town, every person and animal screams and hides—except for one girl, Arabella. The two become quick friends and spend the day playing together. But will the giant ever get his cup of tea?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478879671
Publisher:	Reycraft Books
Publication date:	01/16/2024
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.38(h) x (d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

The author of over 300 books, including children’s books, fantasy, and science fiction, Jane Yolen is perhaps best known for Owl Moon, a sweet and tender picture book written in verse about a father taking his child out owling. She is also the author of The Devil’s Arithmetic, a historical fiction novella about a girl who is transported back in time to Poland during WWII.

Editorial Reviews

09/25/2023

In this classic-feeling fairy tale, an elderly giant with pale skin and a long white beard has grown weary of his reclusive life on a mountaintop overlooking the ocean. “He was tired of pretending by himself,” writes Yolen (the How Do Dinosaurs Say series), “tired of playing checkers by himself, tired of reading out loud to himself, tired of singing both the soprano and the bass parts in all the songs.” When the giant tromps into town for companionship, his arrival scares off everyone except pale-skinned Arabella, a redheaded, pigtailed child who also experiences loneliness (“No one in town had time to play checkers or anything at all with her”). After the two engage in a game and jump-rope, and read Arabella’s books, the giant happily participates in a doll tea party, drinking water tea and eating mud cookies. Italian illustrator Domeniconi matches the text’s composure, working in a formal painterly style that transports readers to a landscape suffused with golden light, at once magical and very human. There’s no big revelation, no moment of conflict—just the quiet joy exuding from two people who have found a boon companion. Ages 5–9. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-10-21
A lonely giant and a small girl forge an unlikely friendship.

On top of a rocky hill, a nameless giant with lightly tanned skin and a white beard and hair leads a solitary life. Although he’s chosen to live on the hill because it’s “far away from anyone else,” he starts to feel lonely as he gets older; he’s tired of playing checkers by himself and making his own tea. So the giant makes the perilous trip down the hill to a nearby town. The inhabitants flee in terror—except for a light-skinned, redheaded girl named Arabella who doesn’t run away because “her legs were too short and her heart was too brave.” Arabella’s parents are too busy to play with her, so she’s eager for a friend. She and the giant spend the day playing checkers, reading books to each other, and having a tea party with mud cookies and pretend tea made from water, prompting the giant to offer to bring real tea next time. The folksy flow of the unrhyming yet rhythmic text lends itself well to reading out loud, but the breathtaking, painterly illustrations are the true stars of this book, creating a landscape to explore in each two-page spread and lending expressiveness even to the animal characters.

A simple, old-fashioned tale brought to life by stunning visuals. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews