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(More customer reviews)As of this moment in time the number of Linda Sue Park books I have read in my life amount to the following: two. This is rather shameful. If you're a children's librarian (as I am) and your job is to read and know all the hip young authors winning medals hither and thither (and thither and yon) then at the VERY least you could bring yourself to read the most recent Newbery winners. Ms. Park won a Newbery for "A Single Shard", and I have not read it yet. What I have read is her remarkable picture book, "The Firekeeper's Son". THAT, my friends, is a great book. So when I was handed a copy of "Project Mulberry", I dove into it with zero hesitation. The result was a bit confusing. What we have here is a clever book by a clever author who seems to be hooking far too many themes together all at the same time. Fortunately, you can appreciate this book without necessarily loving it. At least I could.
Julia and Patrick are best friends. Have been since the moment they met, actually. Together, the two of them have done all sorts of interesting projects for school together. Patrick's the ideas man and Julia's the person who likes to do the labor. In fact, these kids never had a single fight until they decided to do a WGGL project together. WGGL is a kind of 4-H for city kids and Julia and Patrick have chosen to do something with "animal husbandry". Finding the right kind of animal, however, isn't as easy as they'd hoped. When Mrs. Song, Julia's mother, suggests that they do a silkworm project Patrick is thrilled. Julia is not. Both her parents are Korean immigrants and their daughter has always shied away from things that strike her as "too Korean". Now, however, she's stuck with a mighty difficult and complex project. It will take some serious discussions with Patrick, a little reassessment of the soul, and some fights with the author (tastefully done, of course) before Julia comes to terms with something she doesn't want to understand.
This would have been a pretty straightforward tween tale had Park not decided to explain a little bit about the writer's process as directly as possible. "Project Mulberry" alternates chapters that detail Julia's silkworm struggles with 2-3 page sections in which Julia, the character, berates and talks to Linda Sue Park one-on-one. The result will be jarring to some, fascinating to others. It's as if Ms. Park has preempted any and all questions received on her book tours by putting them in the mouth of her main character here. When things go badly for Julia, she makes her opinions on such matters loud and clear towards her creator. For the most part, this conceit works well. It's almost a kind of "Sophie's World" for kids (in that a written character is aware of her state). The problem with it, though, is that the Julia who speaks to Ms. Park doesn't seem to be the same Julia that is working on the silkworm project. The Julia that belittles her creator and complains almost without cease seems to be a kind of bratty counterpart to her living-and-learning self. I did not like the Julia I met between the chapters. I liked the Julia who was trying to sort out her life very much.
A couple things save this novel from being yet another I-did-a-project-and-learned-something-about-myself type book. For one thing, Ms. Park gives Julia a racist mother. For a book in which racism isn't even particularly the focus of the story, this underlying subtext gives the tale a bit of nuance. Mrs. Song isn't a bad person. Julia even speculates (with Patrick's help) that perhaps her mother first met black people in the form of American soldiers back in Korea. This otherwise unassuming feature in Julia's life, however, offers a bit of complexity to an otherwise straightforward family interaction. Plus it makes for good writing. Duh.
By the way, I was utterly baffled by the Author's Note included at the back of the book. Ms. Park apparently makes reference to such classic children's books as, "The Mouse and His Child" and "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town". If any of you can figure out how these books are referenced then a tip of the hat to you all. Personally, I couldn't find so much as a sly reference to these two books. If any of you know where they are, please let me know forthwith.
Personally, I felt that the alternating Julia v. Author sections were more of a distraction than a boon to "Project Mulberry". Just the same, the book is a fun read and a truly fascinating look at the life cycle of a little remarked upon creepy-crawly. If you happen to know any kids that are particular science buffs (natural science, that is) then see if you can't finagle this book onto their reading lists. A great companion to fellow environmentalist title, "Hoot", by Carl Hiassen.
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