pumpkins

Six Tips for Hosting a Picture Book Tea Party

Thank you for having me as your guest, Lauri. There’s something magical about tea parties and picture books. Both are opportunities to connect with others through a shared experience and to enjoy special treats—for the belly and mind! With that sentiment, and in celebration of my new picture book Pumpkin Day for Boo and Belle (Paraclete Press, 2025), which revolves around a tea party, here’s a plan for collaborating with your kids to create an experience that celebrates both— a Picture Book Tea Party!

Tip One: Together with your child(ren), select the picture book you would like to feature at your Picture Book Tea Party. Consider choosing a book that touches on a holiday, occasion, or theme that coincides with the month the party will take place or with a special interest your child has (dinosaurs, princesses, etc).

Tip Two: Read your chosen book together, brainstorming as you go, what tea party decor might pair well with the book. This is a great opportunity for an older child to practice list making, or if your children are younger, they can verbally list the ideas while you write them. Ideas might include hanging decor and table decor, including napkins, place cards, and a centerpiece. For the most home-grown feeling tea party, have the kids make as many of these as possible!

Tip Three: Again, inspired by the book, create a tea party menu. A tea party, in my opinion, should include a mix of sweet and savory treats, with fruit included, so that little ones aren’t just consuming sugar and butter. So, with your children, brainstorm what fruit or simple tea sandwich they think the characters in your chosen picture book might enjoy and include that on the menu. For the dessert-y item, consider making sugar cookies decorated to look like a character or object from the book, such as these pumpkin-shaped cookies that I brought to share at my book launch party with Pumpkin Day for Boo and Belle. You might also consider cupcakes or muffins, with home-made or printed toppers, like these from my book Love is Kind.

Tip Four: Make and send invitations to your Picture Book Tea Party. Part of the tea party fun is getting a fancy invitation in the mail. So, after making your list of invitees, create an invitation that includes the book cover and the words “You’re Invited to a Picture Book Tea Party featuring Title of Book” along with other pertinent details including the date, time, and location of your party. For extra fun, encourage guests to come in tea party attire or dressed up in a manner that fits the theme of the book. (Note: Someone once told me a good rule of thumb for the number of guests to match the approximate age of the children attending the party.)

Tip Five: Ahead of time, plan at least four activities to do at the tea party. Little ones love moving around and doing things, so, at your Picture Book Tea Party, I recommend planning two crafts and two games/movement activities. For the games/movement activities, I have found that doing book-themed variations of traditional childhood party games like Simon Says, for example, are always a hit. For the crafts, many picture books these days have free activity kits that the publisher has created to go with them. These often contain great crafts. Here, for example, is the activity kit that goes with Pumpkin Day for Boo and Belle. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0107/8889/6826/files/Pumpkin_Day_Activity_Guide_-_REV.pdf?v=1741280044 (Note: This activity kit actually includes plans for a Pumpkin Day tea party complete with games, crafts, and treat suggestions!)

Tip Six: Once you have all the above ready, create a party timeline so that when the guests arrive, everything is ready and you and your guests can just have fun! Here’s a sample timeline for a 60-minute party for preschoolers:

Guests arrive.

Do a welcome craft.

Read the story.

Play a book-themed game.

Serve the tea and treats.

Play another book-themed game.

Do a craft.

Read the story again, or have a couple extra that also fit the theme on hand as a calming way to end the party as children are getting picked up.

Say thank you for coming and good bye.

Thanks again, for having me as your guest, Lauri. I hope it results in many fun tea parties!

Laura Sassi is the author of multiple books for young children including the best-selling Goodnight, Ark, which was a 2015 Christian Book Award Finalist; My Tender Heart Devotions, which was a 2024 Christianity Today Book Award finalist, Faithful Feet, Love Is Kind, Happy Birthday Christmas Child and more. She writes daily from her home in Cranford, New Jersey and finds special joy in sharing messages of kindness, comfort and hope at school visits, church gatherings, and other events.

To learn more about Laura and her lovely books, visit:

I’m thrilled that Frog on a Blog is a stop on multi-published author Sue Heavenrich’s book blog tour today! Sue is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And she just happens to be a member of the West/Central Upstate NY Chapter of the SCBWI, just like me, and our paths have crossed a few times at local conferences. She may have even given me a writing tip or two.

Sue is also a former science teacher, a nature lover, an avid gardener, and an insect enthusiast, so it’s no wonder that she likes to write children’s books and magazine articles that highlight science and nature subjects. Sue has combined those interests with another one. Baking! And the result is her brand-new picture book and star of this blog tour The Pie That Molly Grew, which released August 15th from Sleeping Bear Press and features charming illustrations by Chamisa Kellogg. I jumped at the chance to ask Sue some questions about herself and her lovely book, which, by the way, cleverly uses the cumulative rhyme pattern of the familiar tale The House That Jack Built! Let’s hear from Sue!

Congratulations on your fabulous new picture book The Pie That Molly Grew, which was beautifully illustrated by Chamisa Kellogg! Please tell us a bit about it and what inspired you to write it.

SH: The Pie That Molly Grew begins with the planting of a single seed and shows the vine growing and flowering and finally producing a pumpkin. At the end, Molly’s pumpkin is turned into a delicious pie for the community to share in a celebration of gratitude.

I’m pretty sure that the idea germinated in my brain one year while I was planting seeds and dreaming about the salads and pies those fruits would become. Then I came across a post by Susanna Leonard Hill. It was National Pie Day and she challenged us to write a story …. about the biggest pie; the smallest pie; pies stacked sky high. I started thinking about apple pie and blueberry pie, pecan and key lime, and pumpkin pie. A line came to mind and got stuck, like an earworm, until I finally wrote it down: This is the seed that Molly sowed.

Where do you think your love of nature comes from?

SH: My parents took us kids camping and hiking. I loved the ranger talks at National parks and filled a notebook with lists of animals and plants I met. My dad loved geology, and, when he found an interesting rock, he’d tell the story about where it came from. My mom loved to watch the night sky and once woke us up in the middle of the night to drive up a mountain so we could see a comet. Being outside, in nature, was where adventures happened. And then I discovered … field guides! And Euell Gibbons’s books about eating wild plants.

Why do you feel it’s important to share science and nature with children through books?

SH: Children are curious about the world around them, so let’s make sure they have the tools and inspiration to explore that world. My kids asked questions about everything. Why do ants walk in a line? What happens if you roll a toy car down a board? How can we launch a cork to fly over the garage? As a writer, I want to create books that can nurture curiosity and help children (and maybe some adults, too) discover answers to their questions.

Your book Diet for a Changing Climate: Food for Thought, which you cowrote with Christy Mihaly, talks about edible weeds, amongst other unexpected and unusual foods. What weed, in your opinion, is the tastiest? Please share a simple recipe.

SH: Thanks for a shout out for our book. Christy and I had a lot of fun tasting recipes and writing the book. As for eating wild plants, I have a soft spot for dandelions. They are pretty, and a great pollen source for early pollinators. Plus they are easy to grow – all you do is … nothing! Dandelions were the first wild plant I tried when I was a kid. My friend and I collected leaves from her yard and boiled them. They were so stringy and bitter! I learned my lesson: pick young leaves.

I have a recipe for dandelion quiche in my book. But here are some very simple ways to add dandelions to your menu: sprinkle dandelion flowers on the top of your salad (pull individual flowers from the head); mix individual flowers into pancake batter and tortilla dough; pick very young leaves and toss into a stir-fry. Just make sure that the dandelion plants haven’t been sprayed by chemicals. I source my dandelions from my organic garden, where I have a continuous supply season after season.

You also love to write about insects. Which insect do you find to be the most fascinating and why?

SH: Oh, man! That’s like asking which of my kids is my favorite. I love bees – big, bumbly, bumble bees and tiny, shiny, metallic green bees. But then there’s flies, which look like bees (and one I found just the other day that looks like a huge yellowjacket!), and beetles (who doesn’t love beetles?). Oh! And pseudoscorpions. They’re not insects – they have eight legs – but they are related. They’re not scorpions either, even though they wave their big* pincers just like a real scorpion. (*Big is a relative term. Pseudoscorpions are often only a quarter of an inch long.)

What book projects are you working on right now?

SH: I’m working on a couple ideas, but I’m still at the stage of throwing words on the page to see what sticks. Meanwhile, I continue to learn more about the insects and spiders that inhabit my garden and share those discoveries on my blog, Archimedes Notebook.

Sue Heavenrich used to teach science. Now she writes magazine articles and books for children and their families. When the ground is warm and the sun is shining, Sue plants pumpkin seeds in her garden. She mulches and weeds and waters her plants. She watches—and counts—the many kinds of bees that visit her flowers. And when it’s time, she slices and dices and mixes and spices . . . and bakes up her favorite kind of pie!

Visit Sue at the following sites:

Website: http://www.sueheavenrich.com

Archimedes Notebook blog: https://archimedesnotebook.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SueHeavenrichWriter