Maybelle Goes to Tea: A Book Review

January 25, 2012

I picked up the book, Maybelle Goes to Tea by Katie Speck, to read to my daughter for RAFT. It looked like a cute book about some creature with a large pink bow on its head. As I started to read this book aloud to my daughter, I discovered that Maybelle was a cockroach. I nearly gave up on reading this book. Cockroaches are something I can do without in this world! However, I gave it the old college try and read it aloud to my daughter. 

Maybelle lives in this pristine house, and somehow the owners never seem to realize that they have an uninvited guest in their midst. The owners of the house, Mr. And Mrs. Peabody, are very sanitary people--except for their unknown guest. Maybelle has a friend, a flea, and later befriends a fly. As Maybelle would say, "bugs stick together." As the story progresses, Mrs. Peabody is going to have tea with her lady friends. While they are all having tea, a fly disrupts their tea. He can’t help himself because the food looks so yummy! Mr. Peabody comes to the rescue. He ends up setting off a bug bomb, and everyone has to escape. The Peabodys save the dessert, and Maybelle wants to try it. (This part of the story makes me cringe!) Maybelle gets into the last cookie, and Mrs. Peabody thinks she is going to enjoy the last cookie, too. Maybelle is in the cookie and in Mrs. Peabody’s mouth! How gross! Mr. Peabody comes to the rescue again and sails Maybelle to the neighbor’s yard. Maybelle ends up in a bird’s mouth and then out of it. She lands on Mrs. Peabody, then the cat and the bird. Oy vey! I would be staying indoors. Other than the grossness of thinking of a cockroach, this was a cute book for any kid who likes bugs.

Another suggested read: Maybelle in the Soup, by Katie Speck 

Trish S. 
Antioch Branch