Thirteen year old Annie gets a job in her grandmother’s tea shop (Does that violate some type of child labor law?) Soon after she starts work there, she learns that the shop is in dire straits. If something doesn’t change soon, her grandmother will lose her shop! Annie seeks help wherever she can get it, trying to enlist her friends and the dreamy older boy who works at the shop. But the dreamy older boy has plans in mind that will completely alter the entire feel of her grandmother’s store. Will Annie go along to try to impress the boy or will she stand up to him and make a plan that will save the shop while keeping the same special feeling her grandmother worked so hard to create?
The tea shop itself is adorable. There is a memory album created by the girls with facts about tea and recipes that appears throughout the book and it is also, adorable. But the bulk of the story is incredibly unpleasant to read. In books that are trying to be light and fluffy, it is not entertaining to watch girls throw themselves at highly unlikeable boys just because they are cute. And it is not fun to read about teenage girls being in the type of high drama fights that girls that age tend to be in. I’m not saying that these aren’t real parts of growing up, but it wasn’t a book aimed at hard-hitting reality. It’s a fluff bit about saving your grandmother’s tea shop. And it was not particularly fun.
The story is way too juvenile to entice all but the most immature of high school girls. Save it for middle school students.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – The girls are definitely interested in boys. Annie has sort of kissed someone and has slow danced with someone. One girl has a boyfriend. There’s a love interest early on who’s really not a good guy. A boy once mooned the teachers’ room.
Profanity – “darn,” “stupid,” “jerk,”
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s a reference to Rosemary’s Baby which the main character doesn’t understand. A girl intentionally hits a boy with a tennis serve. Some people plan to cover another person’s house in toilet paper. In a story about ancient tea ceremonies, a soldier challenges a man to a sword fight. Another random story in the book includes a friend that eventually dies.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
