Title: Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party
by
Published By: Candlewick Press (September 11, 2018)
Book Description:
Jolly smashing! Could the Moodys really have royal blood? Judy brings her new look to a comical episode about the ups and downs of exploring a family tree.
Judy Moody is in a royal purple-mountain-majesties mood. Make that Majesty with a capital M! With Grandma Lou’s help, Judy has dug up proof that some old-timey Moodys (aka the brave Mudeyes) lived in merry olde England. In fact, if her grandpa’s notes are right, Judy might even be related to — royal fanfare, please — the Queen herself! Should Judy start packing her purple robe for a sleepover at Buckingham Palace? But then Judy’s family tree gets a few more shakes — thanks to her nemesis, Jessica “Fink” Finch — and some more surprises come tumbling out. Crikey! These new gems are not nearly as shiny or sparkly as the crown jewels. Now Judy has some right royal family secrets she’d like to keep hidden away in a dungeon somewhere — and especially away from Jessica, the princess in pink herself!
My Thoughts:
Judy Moody has a new class project to work on – a family tree. And she is thrilled purple because she has discovered she has connections to royalty when her grandma mentions an ancestor who could be traced to the Tower of London!! She now is going to have the most exciting family tree in the class, one that even Jessica Finch cannot match. She even shoots off a letter to the Queen herself letting her know they are related 🙂
But as she goes about researching for the project, she is not happy that Jessica seems to know more about royalty, British customs, and slang. How can and how does Jessica know more? Her adventures, the surprises she has, the discoveries she makes, and all the wonderful things she learns, as she works on completing her family tree are sure to keep readers enthralled and the ending will have you feeling thrilled for our gutsy, energetic heroine.
I learned a whole lot of interesting facts, thanks to the research the kids in the book did for their project, and also thanks to Stink (he came up with the weirdest ones, like some fish communicate through farts!!). Also, for instance, did you know that the color purple was obtained traditionally from snails (and in some parts of the world, it is still made that way, though per the article I read, without killing or harming them unlike earlier)? I also learned that the Queen owns many fish in the British waters as well as swan on the Thames river.
I loved how the kids used their imaginations (aren’t those seemingly endless and totally wacky oftentimes!) in the book to make do with what they have, to have fun, to learn. Discovered that there is joy in wind-up-toy races and in the simplest of tea parties. There are more lessons to be learned as well – on friendship, on responsibilities that come with position, and simply learning itself. I also loved learning about the existence of the Great Women Rulers ruler 🙂
The book includes a helpful guide to British slang and sayings used in the book at the end.
In Summary:
It is a fun book to read, with totally likable and relate-able characters. And with all its info, does leave you with knowing your onions, it was the bees knees indeed.. 🙂 (read the book to find out more!).
Regarding the illustrations, the copy I had was an eARC with the illustrations in draft but they were totally sweet and I will definitely be looking at the completed ones for myself soon.
So go ahead; read the book and you will smile through it, read it out loud and you will LOL, often!
Rating: 4.5/5
Reading Level: 6 – 9 years (but I think even slightly older kids will enjoy the read, as well as Judy Moody fans of any age)
Reread Level: 3.5/5 – you could read it out loud together again; and read once more to go through the facts learned and the fun idioms and slang
Thank you to NetGalley for a eARC of this book. Opinions are fully mine.
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Here are some suggested activities for this Judy Moody book (put together by yours truly!) in this activity guide. I would love to hear from you if you check the guide out and find out your thoughts on it. I have included a shopping list of suggested/useful materials for those activities below.
Writing this post as a series for the Ultimate Blog Challenge and Write 31 Days. 31 Days, 31 Books! This is Day Five.
Great review, this book looks and sounds like a really fun and very cute children’s book, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.