This book was good. Not great- I won't be purchasing my own copy. Though the perspective of the writing was unique, the idea behind the uniqueness was rather confusing, though it was helped quite a lot by the beautiful illustrations. The book was written as if it was a letter to Ed, the ex-love of the protagonist Min, detailing the items she had accumulated over the course of their relationship. Often, the item had the story of a date attached. Because the box was supposedly filled in chronological order, the stories started with the first date, and as she unpacked the box, got closer to their breakup. But what I don't understand about this is how that happened! Min had filled her nightstand drawer so that the ticket from the first date was at the bottom. After the breakup, she supposedly dumped all the stuff willy-nilly into a box to take to his house- so how did anything wind up in order? And how did the small things (the burr, the ticket stub) wind up still on top? It just seems to defy the laws of physics! But I digress. My absolute favorite part of the book? The poetry: okay, it was made up (at least as far as a Google goes!), but the fact that someone can recite a poem memorized a year ago in ELA class... bit of a class connection! And the art... It was well done, the object that was to be written about painted in detail on a simple, bright background. The book was average before the pictures-but the art brought it up a bit. Overall, I'd categorize this as a beach read- easy, quick, realistic- but with that twist of art, it was pretty good.
The book was written as if it was a letter to Ed, the ex-love of the protagonist Min, detailing the items she had accumulated over the course of their relationship. Often, the item had the story of a date attached. Because the box was supposedly filled in chronological order, the stories started with the first date, and as she unpacked the box, got closer to their breakup. But what I don't understand about this is how that happened! Min had filled her nightstand drawer so that the ticket from the first date was at the bottom. After the breakup, she supposedly dumped all the stuff willy-nilly into a box to take to his house- so how did anything wind up in order? And how did the small things (the burr, the ticket stub) wind up still on top? It just seems to defy the laws of physics! But I digress.
My absolute favorite part of the book? The poetry: okay, it was made up (at least as far as a Google goes!), but the fact that someone can recite a poem memorized a year ago in ELA class... bit of a class connection! And the art... It was well done, the object that was to be written about painted in detail on a simple, bright background. The book was average before the pictures-but the art brought it up a bit.
Overall, I'd categorize this as a beach read- easy, quick, realistic- but with that twist of art, it was pretty good.