I am (possibly) over-analysing "The Tiger who came to Tea". Do you do the same with childrens' books?

[Pendulum]

I love reading this book to my DDs, but always end up thinking about it really hard. What was at the back of Judith Kerr's mind when she wrote it?

• Is it meant to be the kind of fantasy story a child of Sophie's age would make up and tell her teachers?

• Is it a parable about the excitement of a change to the everyday routine (a guest at tea-time, no bath, supper in a cafe- the latter especially exotic I guess at the time of writing)

• Or is it a tale that Sophie's Mogadon-ed up mother make up to explain to her dad why his dinner wasn't ready?

Anyone else thought about this? What other childrens' books seem to you to have hidden depths?

That's weird about the after dark street..I had exactly the same "memory" of dusky walks like that, down a street very similar. Spooky!

Fantastic book, and DD loves Mog too - I have a copy of 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit' to share with her when she is older.
This Guardian article is interesting...here is the
link

I always noticed the cat in the final picture too and was very pleased when ds picked up on it as well....

Horton - the street is in Roehampton, check the destination on the bus in the street scene.

Is it really? Thanks! I sometimes wondered if it was Barnes. Will have a look at bus destination at our nightly reading tonight!

we love the book too. I think the cat at the end is defintiely where Sophie got the idea of the tiger from. Our Mog cd has Judith Kerr (pronounced very poshly "Carr") playing Mog with loud miaows

Love that book.

Never noticed the cat...will look for it.

The Nazi occupation idea makes a lot of sense. I've always felt mother should take a little more water with it (except she couldn't, the tiger drank it all),and have also been a bit dubious about hapless sahm being rescued by Daddy (yes indeed, isn't he camp). Then of course there's the tiger as mother's voracious lover, but perhaps I need to take more water with it.

It's the illustrations that I love though, for reasons of nostalgia and the domestic details.

I can sort of see the Nazi invasion/occupation idea, but that doesn't work for how mesmerising and attractive the Tiger is - they are not petrified by it, they are a bit hypnotically entranced by it. So unless you are saying something about the erotics of the aggressor (which I'd rather Kerr wasn't) I don't think the Nazi parallel completely plays.

I think it's less rooted in specific historical circumstances than in a rather conventional fairy tale mode [qv Bettelheim]: Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf is a sharper and funnier version of the same project: child - the epitome of defencelessness - (note here, exactly, the drippiness of the mother) faces Fiendish Danger and Is Able to See It Off. (The sort of intriguing thing about the Tiger is that in a way it sees itself off (once it has eaten everything) while the child just hangs fire. That's not very Nazi - the seeing itself off in due course. Oh, I suppose unless you are suggesting that if you're patient enough Nazism will blow itself out ... no, I don't think that's at all convincing, in context.)

See also the lovely Paper Bag Princess. [no passivity there]
And dd recently had from school a volume of rewritten Feminist Fairy Tales (Australian, they were) with lots of feist in them.

The other appeal is as a shaggy-dog catalogue story: first the sandwiches, then the buns, then the cake, then the tea, then the this, then the that; ... but it's OK there's still a café. I think the [food] catalogue aspect is one of the huge bits of appeal to children - hypnotic too. Maybe I have greedy children, but I think that's why they liked it - the grub. Mmm, perhaps the fantasy of being big enough to eat everything you think you want to eat?

(Oh and as for the blurb that says "delicious naughtiness" on the back, from Antonia whatsit - TOTALLY wrong.)

Now, something profoundly worth over-analysing, and worthy of any and every bit of poring you can do over it, is ... Peepo.

A specific Sunday in May 1943, with Daddy home on leave but on his way back to the front, with people's expressions coping just with keeping the home fires burning, and being terrified.

That is a book of genius.

We have a pop up version of this, my dd loves it. One of my faves too when I was a child.

We've got the pop up version too - DS (2.4) loves it and I also (for some inexplicable reason) find myself reading in in a very "BBC R.P." style voice.

DS's favourite line is the bit at the cafe - often when we're eating out (or even just sitting down for tea at home) he'll say "Sisigis a cips a ay-ceem!" (Sausages & chips & Ice-Cream!) - even if we're having something far more posh

very amusing thread on TWCTT

here

I read a brilliant interview with Judith Kerr about this

she said it was about the absolute drudgery of SAHMing with small children, where you are desperate for something, anything that's out of the ordinary to happen; where even a ring at the doorbell has infinite possibilites...

I sympathise, I must say.

Beat me to the link, ybd!
And so glad it's one of the codonyms that didn't get wiped

Dh has always believed it's about the mother's adulterous affair

the big furry guy comes in and takes everything and leaves them in panic and disarray
she doesn't know what to do when she realises her mistake and how easily she gave it all away
luckily daddy comes home very magnaminous and understanding

But then my dh is weird

he also has a pathological hatred and distrust of mog

whatever happened to codswallop?

It's shit. Only Thomas the Wank Engine and bloody Mr Men are worse

MrsMattie - Mr Men as the name suggests can only be read by men

Fascinating. I always read the tiger as symbolising post-natal depression - "the tiger" goes round wrecking the joint, preventing Mother from cooking Daddy's supper, and bathing Sophie, and then poor old long-suffering Daddy has to come home and deal with the fallout ...

Though I've heard that Judith herself is having none of the analysing, too!

lol at mr men are only read by men. we have the same rule in our house too.

i too love peepo, couldn't agree more. the first time i read that book i cried, i found it genuinely moving.

and pmsl at the camp dad. dd1 (3) does an impression of him, loding her hat out and with her mouth hanging open, it's hilarious.

I always think about Where the Wild things Are too too much

HATE where the wild things are.

In our house, Mr Men are books that only children can read. So I am safe for at least a few years as DD is only two. I have a sort of sneaking worry that she might insist on reading them to me then but that's better than reading the sodding things myself.

Peepo also reduces me to tears but then I am an enormous wuss.

Ahh Peepo is so lovely isn't it? So evocative - it gave me a flashback to the fringe on the pram and I love the baby in the bath with the soap in the mug with all its night clothes warming on the stove - and grandma slaving away doing the ironing and earning her keep .

Now the Tiger who came to Tea is a fave too - my dd squeals at the "Daddy's home!" bit and I always feel a slight pang of guilt as if I must have done something wrong to be reinforcing this archetype of the breadwinner returning home and giving him his pipe and slippers. Only her own Daddy often has to make his own tea so hopefully that balances things up?!

I am confused as to the Tiger's motives - he seems so sly and then he's playing on his flute at the end and I can't help thinking he's got another agenda I don't quite understand. And I like how oblivious Sophie is to the absurdity of it all as she snuggles up with the Tiger's tail around her neck and is so totally in love with the fact that a Tiger has visited (well you would be wouldn't you?).