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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
This was a good book a perfect blend of magic and speaking about hard family relationships and grief. Really enjoyed it!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was such a beautiful read 💕
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death
A beautiful mix of Korean folktales and a coming of age story. Lily moves from California to Washington state with her mother and sister to live with her halmoni. There she encounters a creature straight out of one of her halmoni's stories.
Oh man, this is a great book. On par with [b:The Giver|3636|The Giver (The Giver, #1)|Lois Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342493368l/3636._SY75_.jpg|2543234]. Don't for a moment think that this book is just for kids, just read it.
For some reason lately I've read a bunch of books that somehow involve memory or stories or Korean mythology -- or combinations thereof. For YA science fiction with Korean mythology: [b:Dragon Pearl|34966859|Dragon Pearl|Yoon Ha Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517413544l/34966859._SX50_.jpg|56241840]. Memory, stories, and identity: [b:The Memory Police|37004370|The Memory Police|Yōko Ogawa|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544335119l/37004370._SY75_.jpg|7310932]. And it looks like [b:Folklorn|54864318|Folklorn|Angela Mi Young Hur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608035107l/54864318._SX50_.jpg|85605672] is very similar to this book.
I'm also currently reading [b:Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility|189989|Finite and Infinite Games A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility|James P. Carse|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436155034l/189989._SY75_.jpg|658469], a philosophy book about, well...finite and infinite games, and juxtaposing that with this book was very interesting: the telling of stories is a form of infinite game (in Carse's sense) despite stories themselves being rather like a finite game: they have a well-defined beginning and end, and although there isn't a good sense of a win condition or players, we do judge the quality or success of stories. (Just as I am doing right now, judging Keller as having won, as it were, the tell-me-a-story game!)
For some reason lately I've read a bunch of books that somehow involve memory or stories or Korean mythology -- or combinations thereof. For YA science fiction with Korean mythology: [b:Dragon Pearl|34966859|Dragon Pearl|Yoon Ha Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517413544l/34966859._SX50_.jpg|56241840]. Memory, stories, and identity: [b:The Memory Police|37004370|The Memory Police|Yōko Ogawa|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544335119l/37004370._SY75_.jpg|7310932]. And it looks like [b:Folklorn|54864318|Folklorn|Angela Mi Young Hur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608035107l/54864318._SX50_.jpg|85605672] is very similar to this book.
I'm also currently reading [b:Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility|189989|Finite and Infinite Games A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility|James P. Carse|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436155034l/189989._SY75_.jpg|658469], a philosophy book about, well...finite and infinite games, and juxtaposing that with this book was very interesting: the telling of stories is a form of infinite game (in Carse's sense) despite stories themselves being rather like a finite game: they have a well-defined beginning and end, and although there isn't a good sense of a win condition or players, we do judge the quality or success of stories. (Just as I am doing right now, judging Keller as having won, as it were, the tell-me-a-story game!)
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
slow-paced
This is a tricky review for me. I really struggled with the magical part...I guess I don't believe enough. It made me very confused and lost within the story so much that I stopped reading for awhile. Thinking it was a 2 star...why keep going. But I wanted to know why people loved it. When I finally came back and got passed a lot of the magical parts and to the real life human stuff it became a 3 star. The ending is beautiful, raw, and touching. The magic started to make more sense. Hard to recommend it to my students because I know they will get lost in the slowness, but for a strong/determined reader this is a great read.