Cloud Tea Monkeys

There are a lot of tea books available for young girls and I’ve purchased several for my little granddaughter.  I’ve never found any that I thought my grandsons (10 and 8) might enjoy, until now.

This book is based on the centuries-old legend of tea picking monkeys.  Tea that is sold today as monkey picked hasn’t literally been picked by monkeys, but refers to the highest quality Tie Guan Yin tea.

Cloud Tea Monkeys is full of wonderful characters, like the little girl Tashi, her mother, the heartless tea plantation overseer, the Royal Tea Taster and Rajah the head male monkey.  The drawings of the Tea Tasters face as he samples the tea in Tashi’s basket are quite hilarious.

This is like a tea fairy tale.  The little girls mother becomes very ill and can’t pick tea and there is no money for a doctor.  The little girl is too small to pick the tea in her place. 

Tashi pours out her heartache to the monkeys that she has befriended on the plantation.  Then something happens that will change her life forever. 

This book has vivid descriptions of the huge tea plantation and colorful illustrations (by Juan Wijngaard).

I loved this book with its happy ending and I hope my grandsons will too.