The King's Tea

I came across this old book at a thrift store yesterday. It's a hardcover and it reminded me of the books I got in a summer book club as a kid. This one however, was first published in 1979, so it couldn't have been part of the club I was in, which had to been a few years earlier. I looked this book up on Amazon and found mostly later publications available. One 1979 edition is going for $44, but it's also signed by the author. Mine is from the same year, but it's not signed. The Salvation Army would have had this book for a quarter, but I paid 50-cents for it at the other thrift store. 

The King's Tea was originally published the The Dial Press for the Weekly Reader Children's Book Club in 1979. It was written and illustrated by Trinka Hakes Noble. Basically, it's a story about a king who sits down to find his tea isn't perfect, so he blames his steward for the sour milk, before storming away. The steward blames the cook, who then blames the kitchen girl. The blame game goes on and on and on -- all the way down to the cow who gave the milk. Then surprisingly, even the cow gets in the game, blaming the flowers, who then blame the weather. It's obviously a blame game story where no one wants to take the responsibility for ruining the King's tea.

It's a cute picture book. The illustrations remind me a lot of The Sheep of the Lal Bagh, which I've blogged about before. As soon as I saw the cover of The King's Tea, I immediately thought of that other book. Anyway, for some reason, I'm drawn to these older picture books.