Cloud Tea Monkeys, written by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham

A place I have yet to discover and a place where I long to go is India. I’d love to travel there one day for many reasons but mainly to view the spectacular sights of the tea plantations. You see I love tea. I have the largest basket in my kitchen filled with teas from all over the world. When friends come to visit and they ask for tea they are sometimes over-whelmed by the choice I give them. Black tea with blue flowers, green tea, mint tea, rose tea etc etc. But there is one tea I have yet to taste myself and that is the delicate flavour of Cloud Tea. Even the name of it sounds dreamy! It’s grown in Meghalaya in India which is a region on the west side of Assam but because the tea plants are grown so remotely it becomes a difficult leaf to pick, hence it’s rarity.

Rather coincidentally the other day I was chatting to a friend, who also happens to love tea, who told me about this wonderfully illustrated story book which tells of the tale of Cloud Tea. The girls and I have since read this story every evening and last night we stumbled across the audio version which is so endearingly spoken by Tania Rodrigues.

Written by an English couple, Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, Cloud Tea Monkeys was written whilst Elspeth was writing a book about tea. It’s a story of a young girl whose mother is too ill to continue her days work picking tea. The family must have the money to pay for the Dr’s bills so Tashi decides to take over her mother’s work. She realises she’s too small to reach the precious leaves and she tirelessly discovers she’s going to need a miracle now to help her mother. Her life is changed forever with the help of a troop of monkeys as they help her fill her baskets with the rarest (and richest) tea leaves.

As soon as you enter this book you are transported to the lives of tea workers in India. The illustrations are stunning and there is so much discussion to come from the plot, especially with older children. We really love this book and the message it presents.

Cloud Tea Monkeys is available from all good bookstores and online from Amazon US and UK.

Vanessa xx

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