Cloud Tea Monkeys

Description

Monkeys come to the rescue of a struggling family in this traditional tale from a Carnegie Medal winner. Tashi lives in a tiny village below the tea plantations where her mother earns a living. One day her mother falls ill, and Tashi must pick tea to earn the money for a doctor. But she is too small to reach the tender shoots and the cruel Overseer sends her away empty-handed. Tashi needs a miracle. Then, on the mountains high above the plantation where only monkeys live, something extraordinary happens that will change her life for ever...

Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham live in Devon, in a house not too far from the sea. Elspeth writes in a room on the ground floor while Mal writes in the attic. Sometimes they meet in the middle to write books like this one. It is Elspeth who finds the seeds the stories grow from. She found the seed for Cloud Tea Monkeys while working on a book about tea. Mal is the author of teenage novels Keeper (9781406303933), Exposure (9781406306491) and Carnegie Medal-winning Tamar (9781406303940). Though of Dutch origin, Juan Wijngaard was born in Argentina, South America. During the 1970s, he attended The Royal College of Art in London to study illustration. Landing his first commission whilst he was still a student, he has since has produced over thirty books for children, including Green Finger House, his first book and winner of the Mother Goose Award in 1981, Shakepeare's Globe (9780744592795), Tales of Wonder and Magic (9780744581478) and the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. He lives with his family in New Mexico, USA.

"The touching tale of Tashi's relationship with her mother and with a troupe of monkeys is enhanced by Juan Wijngaard's evocative and sumptuous illustrations... Beautifully produced, the novel is an object to cherish and a tale to remember." (Sunday Times)"