Project Mulberry

Park, Linda Sue. 2005. Project Mulberry (audiobook). Narrated by Mina Kim and Linda Sue Park. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-307-24536-5.

Julia Song is excited about doing a project for her 4-H like club WGGL with her best friend Patrick. Then the project they settle on turns out to be raising silkworms - something she thinks is "too Korean." When Julia perseveres, deciding that she can't let Patrick down, she has a chance to think a lot of things through - from sustainable farming to prejudice to how to treat her pesky younger brother.

And that's why this story works. Park uses a light touch and portrays the inside of Julia's head as a complex place rather than a one-note song. Julia is as capable of worrying about whether she'll ever complete her collection of state quarters as she is worrying about whether it's true, as she suspects, that her mother is prejudiced against blacks. Overall the story is more uplifting and funny than ponderous. In the end, although all Julia's questions aren't answered, we're left with the feeling that Julia and Patrick are quite capable of tackling any more projects that come their way.

Julia and her parents seem very believable as a contemporary second and first-generation immigrant family. Julia's father, in particular, makes it clear to listeners that Korea is a modern country, a mix of cities and farmland like the US is. And the idea that members of one parallel culture might be prejudiced against another is handled well, with no one coming across as a one-dimensional bad guy but with no easy answers solving everything by the end of the book, either.

A very cool feature of this audiobook is Julia's discussions with Park in between the chapters (Park reads her own parts). As the author herself points out, this is an extra feature that some listeners who are only interested in the story can skip. But kids who are interested in writing will be enthralled by Park's struggles to write the story as it's unfolding.

Listening Library (Random House) made a great decision in casting Mina Kim as Julia. (I still wish they had gotten a Korean actor to narrate Park's A Single Shard, despite the fine narration in the Listening Library recording of that title.) She carries off Julia's many moods as if she remembers perfectly well what it's like to be a tween.

I would display this audiobook prominently at the beginning of summer, when families are vacationing and need CDs for long car trips! Parents and middle-schoolers will both like it, and I think even younger kids will be enthralled by the discussion of the silkworms (and by Julia's younger brother).

AudioFile says, "Kim's tones mirror the contrasts of the bubbly child and the moody teen, the forced brightness of her smile and the uncertainty of her inner voice, the kindness she shows to Mr. Dixon and the impatience she has toward her younger brother. Further, Julia's conversations with author Park between the story chapters, telling the story of the story, are always right. They're delivered in the tones and petulant voice of a teenager who wants life, and her story, to go her way." This recording won the AudioFile Earphones Award.

AudioFile. Qtd. in Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Project-Mulberry-Linda-Sue-Park/dp/0307245349/ref=sr_1_1/102-5676480-3776938?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185072639&sr=1-1.