Waiting For Mummy be Tae-Jun Lee and Dong-Sung Kim

This is a beautiful, simple and strange picture book.

It is about a child who is waiting for their mother at a tram stop. That's about the extent of it. It is beautifully illustrated, and paints a charming picture of Korea. But it leaves questions which I struggle with.

First and foremost, What is such a young child doing waiting by themselves for such a long period of time? Where is his mother or father? Do they have no concern for a child who looks like he could be no more than four. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that a child couldn't wait that long, or should be able to without something bad happening. But it begs to question the roll of the parents.

Secondly, I understand that we are supposed to realise that 'Mummy' has arrived by the final illustration. But we don't know that it is her. We are so far removed from the situation that for all we know, it is some stranger, convinced the boy (who has really been standing in the snow, alone, for hours) to come with her.

I mean, this is only one way of reading this book, which really is beautifully put together. And I must concede that I am a little removed from the culture in which it was produced. Not only is it a Korean book, the text was originally written in 1938, when I can only assume that it was more likely that children might be out in the streets on their own.

I'm not entirely sure what I hoped to achieve by this review, because I can see that this book has its place, and by all accounts, it is highly commended. And I do like to read it; the pictures are stunning. Yet I always reach the end and find myself thinking "but..."

 

2.5 Gold Stars

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JudgeABook Revisited: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Earlier this year, I talked about the cover of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver in one of my JudgeABook posts. Basically, I really like the cover and the whole production of these books. (the blue text inside is also a nice touch). But, despite having owned it for a year or two, I had never read it. Well, I used my last trip to Canberra (long road trip for work) as an opportunity to listen to the audio book.So now, I come back and see if the book lived up to it's cover...

I need to be honest from the outset. I know I would have like this book A LOT more if I had just read it for myself. It was the most annoying audio book I've ever listened to. Talking about just the audio part of it for a minute, I think I preferred the one where the narrator didn't pause for breath in the right spots and it kept changing sound quality over this one.

Firstly, it was almost painfully American. I'm talking about the accents. So clearly American listeners wouldn't have the same reaction as I did, but I'm entitled to it. Secondly, the chapters alternate between the main girl character and the main boy character, each being narrated by someone of that gender. In theory, this was a good idea. In reality, getting used to different voiced for the same characters (as each character speaks in both types of narrated chapters) was annoying. Particularly because the male reader doing female voices sounded exactly like a man in drag from a show I watch. Thirdly, both narrators kept putting the most bizarre inflections into the words that seemed like they were very confused or a little slow. All in all, it was the most grating audio book I've ever listened to.

But that aside, what did I think of the book beneath the speakers? It was ok. If you like paranormal romance, then chances are you'll like this one too. I've seen blogs where people list these books as their "all time favourites". I didn't dislike it, and even though I know I would have liked it a lot more if I'd read it myself, I'm not entirely convinced I would have afforded it the time of sitting and reading. Reading time is precious, and I have too much gold sitting round my house un-read to worry too much about everything that comes around. I was drawn to these by their jackets (and their market penetration), but while they're perfect for their market, they're not at all what gets me excited. I'm not paranormal romance's biggest fan.

Where does this leave this revisited post? I congratulate the design team for a brilliant job on books that I know many will love, but I didn't, but didn't had. I'm just right down the middle with them.

2.5 Silver Stars

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8/40