Trouble in the Tea Gardens
Mitali Perkins
Illustrations Tanvi Bhat
Reviewed by Jennifer Thomas & Sujata Noronha
| Pub Date: 2025ISBN: 10987654321
Page Count: 113 Publisher: Duckbill Imprint of Penguin Random House Review Posted Online: February, 2026 QBR Reviews Issue: Q1 2026 Categories: Fiction | Mystery |
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Most children enjoy a mystery, especially when narrated at an exciting pace and when it includes plot twists sprinkled with intriguing characters. A book with these ingredients results in a reading pleasure and on that count Trouble in the Tea Gardens by Mitali Perkins promises a reader a kind of reading joy. It was possibly in the space of this kind of ‘bookish pleasure’ that some of us in the library read this book upon a recommendation.
Before we go any further, a brief round-up of the plot for our readers. The story is set in Darjeeling, but not the ‘queen of the hills’ version of this piece of land, but instead set within a labouring community who work in the tea plantations. Sona, the twelve year old protagonist, along with her mother and older brother (Samiran Daju) belong to a Nepali community of tea pluckers who work for a Bengali plantation supervisor in Darjeeling. The Bengali plantation boss is a proxy for the true owner – a young girl, Tara, who lost her parents in the Pandemic and is now in the care of her greedy uncle. Tara for all her privilege, is at the mercy of this uncle who plans to marry her off to an older man. Tara is locked up in his house along with a caged bird that can talk.
Before the mystery unfolds, there are a mishmash of many tropes that we encounter – Sona trying to learn English to secure a scholarship to continue to study, Samiran Daju trying to escape stereotypes around Nepalis in India by proving himself in some way, unfair treatment of women workers on the tea-estates, a water shortage in the settlement of the tea pluckers but abundance for the local hotels with swimming pools! The plot twist comes when Tara’s ancestral gold is stolen and suspicions are aroused around Sona’s neighbour Kaki and her brother Samiran Daju. Will Sona find the culprit and prove the innocence of her brother and kindly neighbour?
The tea plucker community is represented as small, hard working, persevering, tight in terms of finances and joyless. We get to know Sona through her aspirations, inner dialogues, daily habits, relationship with her dog, her community interactions and some relationships she fosters through the story. This is where Mitali Perkins’ story telling craft shines. As readers, removed from the context, we feel closely connected with Sona. The cast of characters is introduced in an interesting way – their back stories have us heavily invested in what will happen to them as the plot unfolds. The pace is riveting and as a result readers are likely to mistake Sona’s helplessness for bravery.
While Sona is crafted with adeptness, Sona’s own capabilities, her own diligence, intelligence, thoughtfulness and problem solving do not allow her to stand out as the winner in her own story. The plot falls into a rather common trap of the ‘saviour’ syndrome. Sona and her community of other strong women are saved by the more dominant character Tara. Early in the story we realise theirs is a conditional friendship. Sona can meet Tara only by hood winking the uncle and climbing up a tree that leads to Tara’s bedroom. Their class and social location differences don’t allow them to mingle and meet freely. The only occasion on which Sona enters the house through the door, there is a theft – signaling for young readers unspoken social codes of access and exclusion. Towards the climax, Sona has to use her strength (built over years of carrying water up the hill) to carry Tara’s caged bird (and other things precious to her!).
Though Perkins perhaps meant to depict Sona in a feisty and fearless light, what we are left with is a saddening portrayal of a twelve year old who is always in survival mode. All her strengths (intellectual, physical, emotional) are always engaged in preserving and safeguarding her community’s right to life. It is her labour which ultimately frees the more privileged Tara. While some version of justice appears to come through in the resolution with the greedy uncle banished and Tara setting up a women-led tea plantation with more fair terms of labour – the power never passes on from the dominant group. Tara, the privileged Bengali landowner, remains the benevolent employer. Sona and her community, however “fairly” treated, remain the employed – their survival still dependent on someone else’s largesse.
What left us troubled about Trouble in the Tea Gardens is what it teaches young readers about social change. The happy ending comes in better working conditions for the women in the plantation. Readers are likely to mistake reform – for transformation. The fundamental structures remain unchanged – one class owns the means of production while another class labours on it. The owner is now female and benevolent – but it doesn’t alter the power relationship.
What would it look like if Sona’s labor freed herself? If her intelligence led to collective ownership of land? If the tea pluckers’ community organized for genuine power, not just better treatment from a benign owner?
Perkins doesn’t ask these questions and perhaps she didn’t intend to. But their absence is conspicuous.
We thought about children who may encounter this book on the library shelf – how would they respond to it? This may be a “window book” for readers who come from privilege. It offers a window into issues of class inequity, ethnic prejudice and unfair treatment of labour. However, because of the way the mystery is crafted, they merely become levers for the plot to move forward. They never become issues of social justice which need to be questioned and reflected upon. It would be even more unfortunate if children from marginalized communities (like Sona) were to encounter this book with no adult to converse with about the book or opportunity to question what the representation is possibly reproducing.
We recommend this as a “discussion book” in libraries that promote dialogue and deliberation. This is an interesting text for educators whose work circles around critical thinking, labour rights, and issues of representation in children’s literature.
Other books:
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- Cloud Tea Monkeys by Elspet Graham and Mal Peet, published by Candlewick Press in 2010
- Mirchi Ka Chura by Bama, published in 2021
- Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins, published by Jyotsna Prakashan in 2010
- Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times by Kanchah Iliah, published by Navayana Publishing in 2007