Little Ivy Monroe is feeling blue after a rainstorm ruins her first day of summer vacation. All of her toys are soaked and indoor activities sound boring, so she sits by the raindrop-stained window and waits for the sun to shine. However, her older sister, Lizzie, comes up with an idea to make Frog Tea, a special beverage for the amphibians holding rainy day tea parties in their backyard. Ivy and Lizzie put on their raincoats and, with a few extra-special ingredients, a dash of teamwork, and a sprinkle of imagination, they prepare for one extraordinary tea party.

These thirteen strange stories will transport you into worlds both unique and horrifyingly familiar. They range from a disco fairytale to a dystopian immigration office in space. What binds these horrors together is a humanity desperately seeking hope, only to find a seemingly endless pit of cruelty. If it is not man being cruel to his fellow man then it is man's cruelty toward the natural world that brings to life vengeful and forgotten monsters.

When ear-scratcher (the duke) and Calls-Me-Sweetie-Pie (the Duchess) do not return in time to host their family's famous series of tea parties, Lady Ginny (the poodle) and Codger (the cat) must step in. Codger slows them down a bit, but with the help of Cook and two tiny and unusual characters, they entertain eleven gatherings of guests from mountain lions to butterflies, with just the right treats for each, elegantly prepared, and (almost) flawlessly presented. Lady Ginny's Tea Parties is Lady Ginny’s scrapbook, documenting her heroic attempts: the menus, the mishaps and the haute couture.

Kikko sets out after her father with a forgotten pie for Grandma. When she arrives at a strange house in the wintry woods, a peek in the window reveals that the footprints Kikko had been following did not belong to her father at all, but to a bear in a long coat and hat! Alice in Wonderland meets Little Red Riding Hood in this charmed tale.

The Tea Party has been the most high profile and controversial social movement in the US of recent times. But real analysis of the Tea Party remains slim - is it a genuine social movement or a topdown interest group created by the Republican Party and corporate funding? Crashing the Tea Party is based on first-hand observation of local Tea Party chapters, and undertakes a critical journalistic and scholarly examination from the national and local level. Paul Street and Anthony DiMaggio provide a carefully documented account which challenges conventional wisdoms. Crashing the Tea Party fills the gap in public understanding about this particular social movement, and how social movements in general relate today to the ideologies of left and right and the mass media.