Project Mulberry

While our group was discussing the book Project Mulberry we starting talking about the purpose of the text that Linda Sue Park included where she had a conversation with her main character, Julia, between chapters. We thought this could have potentially been a great asset to the book as the reader would gain insight into the author's thoughts beyond what was presented in the actual story. It was an incredibly unique idea that I have never seen in a book before. However, I was disappointed with the way that the author used these excerpts. I felt as though they were completely unnecessary to the text itself and I did not gain any deeper understanding of Park's motives or the character herself through their conversation.

When I first starting reading the excerpts between chapters I was interested in finding out why the author chose to write the way she did or why she included details and created the plot as it appears in the book. However, the author didn't disclose any new information - when the character would ask why she wrote something the way she did she would simply say something along the lines of "You'll see." This frustrated me so much, especially since the reader never did "see." The book could have been read the same whether those excerpts were included or discarded; they added nothing new to the text.

I would be interested to read another book that uses this concept. I think it is a great idea for an author to include their thought processes within their writing for the reader to gain a more thorough understanding of what the intentions of the book were from the author's point of view. Talking with the main character is a great way to do this, especially in a children's book. However, I do not think that Park made adequate use of these excerpts in a way that enhanced the story for the readers.