Today I realized that some unfortunate people might not know what Tearwater Tea is. Poor, poor people. Tearwater tea is actually a tale in one of my favourite childhood stories 'Owl at Home'. It was written in 1982 by Arnold Lobel, who is also known for his illustrations for the book 'Frog and Toad'. The story has several short tales, or chapters that center around the main character, Owl. In Owl and the Moon, he believes that the moon is constantly following him around and tells it to go home. When the moon disappears behind a cloud, he becomes sad because he feels his "friend" has gone. Later, when the moon shines through his bedroom window, he feels happy that his dear friend returned and followed him home. Another classic tale is Strange Bumps where Owl is perplexed about two strange bumps that appear under the covers at the end of his bed. He becomes so confused as to what they are and where they came from that he solves the problem by sleeping in his armchair. My favourite story though is Tear-water Tea. Owl decides he'd like some tea, so he sits down and begins to think of very sad things. He thinks of chairs with broken legs, and songs that cannot be sung as the words were forgotten. As he thinks of these things, tears begin to fall from his eyes into his tea kettle. He continues thinking of sad things, like books that can never be read as pages were ripped out of them, or mornings that nobody saw because everyone was sleeping and continues to collect his tears. As soon as the kettle fills to the top, he puts it on the stove to boil for tea. Owl felt happy as he filled his cup. "It tastes a little bit salty," he said,"but tear-water tea is always very good."
This story has always held a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf. It's so charming with all the beautiful illustrations and amusing with a slightly confused, but adorable Owl.
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OMG!!! I love these stories! I actually recall copying the whole story and reading it as if I wrote it myself in third grade, and I got caught! Fail. It was the toad one as these pictures look sooo familiar! I love this! Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteElle♥