One day, a small boy receives a very special invitation -- the King and the Queen have invited him to the castle for tea. He accepts, with one question: "May I bring a friend?"

"Any friend of our friend is welcome her," says the King. But their guest's friend turns out to be someone they never expected!

Beatrice Schenk de Regniers's rhythmic text and the fantastical, jewellike artwork of Beni Montresor have made this book a favorite for more than twenty-five years.
整整一个星期，好客的国王和皇后总是盛情邀约小男孩到皇宫里作客。每一次小男孩都会征求国王的意见“May I Bring a Friend?"。第一次，小男孩带了他的朋友长颈鹿一起到皇宫喝下午茶，国王不但一点都不惊讶或生气，甚至和善地向长颈鹿打招呼。接下来，国王夫妇仍然不断地邀请男孩成为他们的座上嘉宾，早餐、午餐、下午茶、晚餐甚至万圣节，每一次，男孩还是非常礼貌地问道是否能带一位朋友赴宴呢?好客的国王夫妇当然一口答应，就这样皇宫里的访客多了河马、猴子、大象、狮子，甚至还有海狗!

本书利用重复、押韵和节奏性文字，组成一个趣味又生动的故事。不仅文字流畅，透过情节的发展，孩子还能认识各种野生动物，更重要的是在朗诵"May I Bring a Friend?"时，学会如何当一个有礼貌的好小孩。

本书荣获1965年凯迪克金牌奖，至今仍深受大小朋友喜爱。

The King and Queen are most gracious hosts to a certain little boy--and any friend of his is a friend of theirs. When he brings a giraffe to tea, the King doesn't blink an eye and says, "Hello. How do you do?" and the Queen merely exclaims, "Well! Fancy meeting you!" The royal pair continue to invite the boy as their guest for tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, apple pie, and Halloween, and each time he politely asks if he can bring a friend, waits for their assent, then brings a hippo, monkeys, an elephant, and once even a pride of lions into their elegant home. Beatrice Schenk De Regniers's gentle, repetitive, rhyming story, with the refrain "So I brought my friend," will resonate with young children, who will be pleased to see the well-behaved wild animals wreaking harmless havoc in the palace, and soothed by the unfalteringly open arms and perpetual politesse of the King and Queen. Beni Montresor's distinctive, inky, richly colored drawings earned this book a Caldecott Medal in 1965, and have won the hearts of children ever since. (Ages 3 and older) --Karin Snelson