May I Bring a Friend?

Written by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Narrated by Albert Hague

An imaginative boy graciously accepts an invitation from the King and Queen and then invites them to the zoo.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Weston Woods
• Release date: Jan 1, 1973
• ISBN: 9780545416818

Reviews for May I Bring a Friend?

[emtimmins · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a great read aloud--you take your voice all over the place. A classic and wonderful. Kids love watching to see what animal (s) will be next.

[beckie05 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this story a queen and a king invite a young child to their castle. He asked if he may bring a friend and they are very excited and tell him it is no problem. His friend ends up being an elephant. This story is very cute because it is not expected that a child would have an elephant as a friend. I liked it because it shows children that you can have many different types of friends.A good extension can be for all the children to draw a picture and/or write down the names of their friends. Also, I can have them write or draw a picture of a fun adventure they had with a friend.

[aflanig1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A young boy is invited to the King and Queens house for tea and is allowed to bring his friends with him. Cute rhyming story

[dukefan86 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a cute, charming little story! It reasonated with me even more than the illustrations.

[tiburon_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A charming tale told in rhyme about a boy who brings different animals to have tea with the king and queen. (Illustrated by Beni Montresor)

[kowasuza · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Using rhythmic, lilting language, May I Bring a Friend? explores the surprising results when a boy is invited to tea by the King and Queen and he asks to bring a friend with him. Whimsical line drawings and bright analogous colors accentuate the humorous tone of these rhymes. Young children will enjoy predicting which friend or friends the boy will bring with him on his next visit so this engaging book is a terrific choice for a story time at the library. Ages 3-6.

[sarahdvs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: This is a story about a little boy who gets an invite to the King and Queen to have Sunday tea with them. The little boy ask in return if he can bring a friend with him each time they ask him to come and they said yes, so he brought a friend with him and each time it was a different kind of animal. Personal Reaction: This story started out me thinking that this little boy was going to bring friends with him to everything that he was invited to but my first thought was that it was going to be other little boys and possibly girls but instead he brought animals as his friends which is alright. Classroom Extension Idea: 1. I could read this book to the children and let them figure out what was going on in the story. 2. This story would help the kids know that you can be friends with animals and people. I believe it would help the kids if they knew that.

[abarnes012892 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

May I Bring a Friend is about a child being asked to visit the king and queen and each time he wants to bring a variety of friends. And at the end the king and queen finally visit the child and his friends at the zoo. Although the pictures were appropriate for this type of book, it did not meet my expectations for a picture book because the pictures didn’t make sense to me without reading the book. The color scale was too pink. The illustrator did use a variety of techniques to create this book; it just didn’t do a good job with telling a story.

[ambourg7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The text and illustrations match well together. Montresor uses a bit of shading with various shapes. The colors are limited but show the same throughout. The use of black and white illustrations gives a contrast with the colors. The pictures have delicate details that show the emotional expressions in the characters and animals.

[awoodham93 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The illustrations in May I Bring a Friend are phenominal. I love how the backgrounds are colored, but the details are done with what appears to be pen. The illustrations are very vivid, and make you laugh when you see what is happening in the story. The little boy has many animals friends that he brings along with him to meet with the King and the Queen. Each time he is invited, he brings along a new friend. However, the King and the Queen invite the little boy another time, and instead the boy's friends want the King and the Queen to come visit them. So the boy, the King, the Queen, and all of their animal friends drink tea in the zoo on a Saturday at half-past two.

[roni.rawlins · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary:A king and queen kept inviting a boy over for tea. Each time he would bring different guests. Each time the guests were animals. In the end, the king, queen, and child finally went and had tea at the zoo because the animals invited them, therefore, they would have all of the animals there at the same time. Personal Reaction:Personally, I felt that this book was repetitive and lacked a good moral to the story. The rhymes were beneficial in teaching children and I wonder if that was the reason behind the Caldecott award! Classroom Extension Ideas:1. The class could have an actual tea party.2. I could set up the classroom in order to have a “formal lunch”. I could ask the cook to prepare a “special meal” while the children and I all dressed up. We could all dine and talk formally about them.

[conuly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a bit longer than many picture books, and the illustrations aren't as colorful as in more modern books, so some smaller children may have trouble sitting through it. However, with the right age range, this book is wonderful.A little boy is just randomly invited to the palace for the tea (every day in a week, in fact). So each time he brings a guest, another animal, until Saturday when he turns the tables and they all go to the zoo to eat their tea instead.It's sweet, it's simple, it has a gentle rhyme, my nieces love it - I love it! You definitely want to check this one out.

[miss_annie_o · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This delightful rhyming picture book follows a young boy who is invited to spend part of his day with the King and the Queen for six whole days. Each day the King and Queen ask the boy to visit the boy makes a request of his own - he wishes to bring along a friend each day. His friends consist of hippos, lions, monkeys, giraffes, and other such large and generally untamed creatures - some of whom act just so. However, the King and Queen seem to enjoy themselves as they attend on the seventh day, a tea party with all of the little boy's friends at the local zoo.

[sarahchaisson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A young boy is invited to have tea with the King and Queen. He asked to bring a friend and of course they agree. He first brings his friend a giraffe and then a hippo. He then asked to bring his other friends, monkeys. The monkeys tear up everything and eat all the food. Next, comes an elephant, lions who roared, and seal who plays the trumpet. The boy, King and Queen all get invited to visit the animals for tea on Saturday. When they get to their home they are all at the zoo.

[tramtran-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a cute book! May I Bring A Friend? is about a little boy who got an invitation to parties from the king and queen and each time before he come he would ask them if he can bring a friend and each time he would bring a different animal. These are not the usual house pets, but instead he would bring the exotic one such as a group of monkey, an elephant, and even a tiger! The king and queen was wondering where did found all these wild animals! My favorite scene from the book is when he brought an elephant to the king and queen tea party. When they saw the elephant and said "I don't know where your friend can sit down." They ended up sitting on his friend. I thought that each scene was so witty and funny. I especially love the ending when the boy invited the king and queen to his party with his friends instead and they ended up having tea with him ad his animal friends at the city zoo.

[tnelson725 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Caldecott winner. The narrator in this story is invited to visit the king and queen and every day he brings a new friend. On Sunday he brings a giraffe to tea. On Monday he brings a hippo to dinner. On Tuesday he brings monkeys to lunch. On Wednesday he brings an elephant to breakfast. On Thursday he brings lions to Halloween. This continues until the narrator and the animals invite the king and queen to visit them and then the book explains that this is why the king and queen were seen in the zoo having tea.This is a really fun story with repetitive rhyming that kids will enjoy reading along with. The illustrations won the book a Caldecott Award and I could easily see why.For the classroom, I would have students create a fantasy where they would invite an animal to their classroom. They need to tell what kind of animal and what they would be doing.

[cclark37 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary: A king and queen invites a boy over for tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and apple pie. For each day, the little asks to bring a friend, to which the king and queen happily allow. Each page features an illustration of an animal that the little boy is bringing to meet the king and queen.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this children's book from cover to cover. The illustrations complemented the rhymes on each page very well. A great work of fiction for any child to read.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Laugh-out-loud funny story about a friend of the King and Queen who brings an unusual "friend" with him to tea, to lunch, to dinner. There's lots of repetition for the younger reader. Delightful.

[matthewbloome · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a simple repetitive story of a boy who was unusually good friends with a king and queen. He repeatedly bringsw dinner guets to their palace whenever they invite him and yet the royal couple are surprisingly good natured about it. In fact, they really seem to enjoy his animal guests and eventually go so far as to eat with them at the zoo that apparently was lending the boy these animals all that time. Odd, but nicely written.

[whisper1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This lovely book is a story of a young boy invited by the King and Queen to tea, and then various other meals and occasions. He wants to bring a friend each time he goes to the castle. He brings a giraffe, a hypo, a team of energetic monkeys, an elephant, a team of lions, and a seal.At the end, the room is filled with many large animals, and all have a wonderful, fun time.This is a Caldecott Medal award-winning book. The illustrations are fun and set the tone for a lovely group of giggles from a small child, and adults as well!

[scote23 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Caldecott Winner 1965

I think it has a good message about trying to accept other people's friends, but I wasn't getting into the rhythm of the text.

[1derlys · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A King and Queen invite a little girl to dine with them over 6 days. Each time she is invited she asks if she may bring a friend. The King and Queen tell her that a friend of hers is a friend of theirs. Over the course of time she invites an interesting group of friends and the King and Queen treat her friends with all the courtesies of which a friend deserves. On the 7th day the girl invites the King and Queen to dine with her and all of her friends in kind return.