Review Detail

Tea is Love

Kids Fiction 237

Where Would We Be Without Tea?

November 30, 2025 (Updated: June 03, 2026)

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

As someone who drinks more than my fair share of tea, I'm always glad to read about that particularly fortifying beverage in books like Nicey and Wifey's 2004 A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down or Perkins' new The Golden Necklace: A Darjeeling Tea Mystery. In fact, looking in vain on my local library's website for a history of tea that I read a few years ago, I came across a large numbers of books involving tea that I really want to read.

Picture books are harder to find, other than another favorite, Hoban's 1970 A Bargain for Francis, which is really more about the tea set. My grandson is being raised in (gasp!) a household of coffee drinkers, so Tea is Love is a perfect book to read on repeat to reinforce the idea that a nice cuppa should be the preferred drink.

Good Points

This starts with the line "Tea is a plant", which is something I try to think more about. We then see, in lushly illustrated panels, how tea is served in different places of the world. Tea is shown being prepared by children watching an online video on how to make matcha, and even shows up with children in an online class and at a wedding. My favorite panels are probably the ones illustrating "Tea is a cozy morning", and "Tea is a warm hug", in which a little girl prepares chai and takes it in a thermos to a neighbor. All of these show the main assertion of the book, which is "Tea is love".

This put me in mind a bit of Gilbert O'Sullivan's Where Would We Be (Without Tea) video that came out a few years back, although the illustrations are MUCH better. Cha's pictures have a very cozy feeling, with strong black outlines and warm browns and yellows. These strong backgrounds make the wispy lines of the steam coming off various cups of tea stand out even more. There is a nice variety of locations and types of tea, but the constant is hands holding warm cups.

An author's note talks a bit about the history of tea, and its importance in other cultures. It was slightly surprising that the enormous role tea plays in British culture is not discussed, but that is no doubt due to the problematic colonial history.

Brew a cup of your favorite tea to share with a little one while reading Waissbluth ond O'Byrne's Teatime Around the World, Miyakoshi's Tea Party in the Woods, and Gu's Bitter Tea and Rock Candy and perhaps munching on a biscuit or cookie. I'll keep Tea is Love on hand for when I dust off my copy of Kirk's Miss Spider's Tea Party and my mother's Akro Agate tea set for my grandson's first tea party.