The Golden Necklace: A Darjeeling Tea Mystery
By (Author) Mitali Perkins
By (author) Maithili Joshi
Charlesbridge Publishing,U.S.
Imagine Publishing, Inc
4th November 2025
United States
Children
Fiction
FIC
Hardback
128
Width 152mm, Height 222mm
National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins crafts a contemporary chapter-book mystery about a 12-year-old Nepali girl who sets out to solve the disappearance of her Bengali friend's missing jewelry.
Set within a tea plantation in Darjeeling, 7-10-year-old readers are transported across the world to a politically and culturally rich setting, following our brave heroine, Sona.
Sona, a 12-year-old Nepali girl, has struck up a friendship with Tara, the niece of the greedy tea plantation manager who has promised Tara's hand in marriage in order to get his hands on her inheritance of precious jewelry. Then Taras gold jewelry goes missing. The search is on for the culprit, and Sona must use all her wits in order to prove it wasnt her beloved brother, Samiran Daju, who stole it.
Filled with vivid characters against a complex and multilayered political and cultural backdrop, this novel showcases a strong girl protagonist whom readers will root for. The Golden Necklace is award-winning author Mitali Perkins's latest and most compelling story yet.
Mitali Perkins was born in Kolkata, India, and has lived in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Mexico, Thailand, Great Britain, and Austria. She is the author of Bamboo People, Rickshaw Girl, Monsoon Summer, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, and Secret Keeper. She regularly blogs about life between cultures at www.mitaliblog.com.