Picking Tea with Baba

When Baba wakes up his two sons early one morning, they are excited. Today is a special day because they will be accompanying Baba and Mama on a trek to their mountaintop tea garden to pick tea leaves. Usually Baba goes on his own, but today the journey will be a family affair.

The boys’ loving parents prepare them for the climb with a hearty breakfast and the instruction to wear warm clothes because mountain weather is often unpredictable.

The boys follow Baba up the increasingly steep path and take his advice to be careful. When they reach their destination, the older boy notices that “the tea garden is serene and peaceful, as if it’s asleep.”

In that idyllic setting, as Baba and Mama set to work to pick tea leaves, the boys roam and explore and chase a bamboo partridge. When Mama calls them to help out, they work hard at first, but soon they are fooling around, making funny faces, sneaking up on a praying mantis, and observing honey bees. At lunch time, they gather the sweet-and-sour fruit of the camellia tree.

After lunch, as the dragonflies dance above the tea garden, the boys and Mama rest, while Baba continues to work. Re-energized, the boys continue to explore the tea garden, discovering a black snake and trying once again to catch the partridges.

When a storm arrives, the family seeks shelter and, later, finishes their work for the day. They carefully descend the mountain with their harvest of tea leaves, and, at the tea factory, sell their yield, then return home.

The older boy reflects on his special day: “Delicious tea leaves come from the tea garden. Delicious tea is made from those tea leaves. Picking them is a backbreaking job. And it is also joyful, especially when I do it with my family.”

Illustrator Yu Yin’s stunning artwork depicting the grandeur of China’s mountains, the serenity of a tea garden, the beauty of its creaturely inhabitants, and the tranquility of a tenderly affectionate family working together make this children’s book a visual delight. Picking Tea with Baba gives kids the opportunity to learn about a part of God’s creation—mountaintop tea gardens—and about the arduous work of harvesting tea leaves.

(Charlesbridge)