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Reviewed by: Heather Maneiro, High School Librarian Title: A Tempest of Tea
Author: Hafsah Faizal
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Year: 2024 Good for Grades: 9-12 Genre/Type of Book: Fantasy
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: Vampirism
Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: Cybils Speculative Fiction nominee
If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be:
If the cornerstone of your world was threatened, what would you do to protect it?
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Review:
Abstract and Mini-Review
Arthie is the Danny Ocean (Ocean’s Eleven) of White Roaring. Arthie’s tea house allows her to serve polite society during the day while serving as an underground meeting place for vampires at night. Arthie is informed at the beginning of our book that her lease will be ending meaning the ending of not only her business, but her livelihood and reason for being. Arthie must band together with her gang of thieves much like Kaz from Six of Crows in order to ensure that she can continue.
Personally, I have an easier time with heist plots on film than in print or audio with the complexity of keeping the plot and the characters straight. I do remember for The Westing Game, not a heist but rather a mystery/puzzle novel, that we assisted students with keeping it all straight with character maps😊 I did find Tempest easier to follow in that regards than Six of Crows, but found the plot and overline story of Six more engaging.
Recommendation Justification
Kirkus and Publishers Weekly Starred reviews and Cybils Speculative Fiction nominee
Uses in the Library/Classroom
Could be a good literature circle choice focusing on heist/mystery/puzzle theme paired with titles such as Six of Crows and The Westing Game (as a lower level title.
Appropriateness of Artwork
The cover definitely drew me in for mystery, I did not purchase as a vampire title not understanding or seeing the blood in the teacup until after reading reviews😊
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