develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by: discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination This book would be best suitable for upper key stage two, however, it could also be read to a year four class and high ability year three as it has beautiful illustrations which help tell the story. There are lots of opportunities for cross curricular work such as in Geography by looking at developing countries, child labour and fair trade. learning about adjectives, verbs, tense, conjunctions and punctuation within the context of the book Vividly descriptive language transports us to an unfamiliar life and environment, imbued with a heady magic and yet tempered with the harsh realities of wresting a living from the land.”

Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - In an Author's Note, Mal and Elspeth say that they came up with this story after having read many tales involving tea from the Himalayas. They do not say that they've traveled to the region, but I've been to tea plantations in India, and I find it hard to believe that they could so beautifully describe the light, the mist, the way the day progresses without having been there. Cloud Tea Monkeys (Ragged Bears, 1999), written by Elspeth Graham and Mal Peet, illustrated by Alan Marks — "based on a Chinese folktale" [8] ISBN 9781406333862 (pbk) Using tea as the focus, a cross curricular investigation into the production and distribution of tea could be carried out including fair trade issues.Cloud Tea Monkeys (90-slide editable PowerPoint with 20 worksheets) is an engaging English teaching resource for KS2/3 based on the book by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham. The resource covers a range of Reading and Writing skills and is detailed and progressive. The tale has the feel of a time-honed fable—simple, elegant, and moving—which is especially well complemented by Wijngaard’s sumptuous illustrations.” Despite this book having an element of challenging language this book would be a great read to children out loud. Descriptive passage, writing in role, ‘how to’ guide (instructions), letter, discussion Main Outcome:

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2014-02-12 16:56:20.471121 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1112701 Boxid_2 CH1148707 City Somerville, Mass. Containerid_2 X0008 Donor Intricately told – with painstakingly detailed, radiant illustrations – this little treasure of a book is, naturally, best read at teatime.” A story inspired by Chinese legends comes to luminous life in the hands of Carnegie Medal–winner Peet ( Tamar); his wife, Graham; and Greenaway Medalist Wijngaard ( Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady). The authors’ richly descriptive tone sets the stage: “The sun had not yet found a way through the mountains, but it was coming; a light the color of lemons was soaking into the sky and painting out the stars.”’ develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by: listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 8 August 2012.Home). The Branford Boase Award and Henrietta Branford Writing Competition (branfordboaseaward.org.uk) ( BBA and HBWC). Retrieved 2014-07-01. The use of colour and description in this book is amazing- it really makes you feel like you are there and experiencing what Tashi is feeling. Children can really engage with the story due to the wonderfully written in depth descriptions of the scenery and people as well as the beautiful illustrations. There are many cross curricular links that can be explored within the story and can stem to create a scheme of work relating to the book- such as geography, history, art, literacy and many many more. One aspect that really shone out to me was the link between humans and nature, via the use of the monkeys. As Tashi respected the monkeys and was generous she reaped the rewards as they then looked after her, so this can bring about an element of Geography with looking after nature and also allow children to discover where and how foods they buy in the supermarket get there. Children will then analyse a model diary entry in role as Tashi and identify use of expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials (position). They will use this as inspiration to write their own version, describing the village setting and journey to the tea plantation. At the end of the lesson, children will read each other's writing and evaluate it against the agreed success criteria. The quality of the book itself is great with very detailed and picturesque scenery that would impress any primary aged child.

This book could also be used as part of a topic in Literacy on Myths and Legends or when teaching descriptive writing as the story contains some great similes and metaphors. Other possible activities could include:

Other Subjects

I personally am a big fan of Asia and that part of the world and this book captivated me and I am sure would do the same for children if read out loud with the pictures being shown to them. Malcolm Charles Peet (5 October 1947 – 2 March 2015) [2] was an English writer and illustrator best known for young adult fiction. He has won several honours including the Brandford Boase, the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize, British children's literature awards that recognise "year's best" books. Three of his novels feature football and the fictional South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. The Murdstone Trilogy (2014) and "Mr Godley's Phantom" were his first works aimed at adult readers. understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by: predicting what might happen from details stated and implied Goodnow, Cecilia. "A powerful late start for young-adult book author Mal Peet". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 2 March 2007. Retrieved 5 July 2011. Archived 5 July 2011.

Peet and Graham’s polished narrative is carefully shaped and the fluid, piquant language (‘’Then the women came, their white headscarves glowing in the half-dark, their clothes bright patches of scarlet, green and indigo’’) makes it a natural choice for reading aloud…” I would recommend this book as one for whole class or group reading and then it could be used to introduce a number of activities in different subject areas, as suggested below: Life: An Exploded Diagram (2011), a semi-autobiographical novel, was his last book for young readers. [9] [15] Peet himself stated, "I see genres as generating sets of rules or conventions that are only interesting when they are subverted or used to disguise the author’s intent. My own way of doing this is to attempt a sort of whimsical alchemy, whereby seemingly incompatible genres are brought into unlikely partnerships." [9]Beautiful though Juan Wijngaard’s vibrant illustrations are, Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham tell the story of Cloud Tea Monkeys so vividly that it could stand on its own.” KS1 would benefit from having the story read to them and the beautiful illustrations on a visualiser or interactive whiteboard. the story and illustrations would engross capture the children's attention and imagination, whilst also providing some insight into another culture and way of life. Three of Peet's books feature the fictional South American sports journalist Paul Faustino (and football). Peet's debut novel Keeper, which is primarily a world-champion goalkeeper's life story in the course of an interview. Keeper, The Penalty, and Exposure all feature Faustino and South American football players. When he won the 2009 Guardian Award for the Othello-based Exposure, he told the sponsoring newspaper he had felt that 'football books for children were "pretty much hey"'. Also, "I used to play all the time. I would play football when it was light and read when it was dark. Now I get to play football vicariously." [7] Further ideas that would be incorporated using a cross curricular approach include the idea of using Science alongside Literacy. Perhaps for a more hands on approach to learning children may explore the process involved in making tea and then have the opportunity to taste and smell it. They could then produce a piece of writing which explores the use of instructional writing on how to make tea. One further subject that I had in mind was Art due to the brilliant illustrations used throughout the book. Children could use the illustrations to inspire their own artistic creativity, perhaps exploring the effective use of colour to create light and dark features to their own pieces of art.