Linda Sue Park

While working on a project for an after-school club, Julia Song, a Korean-American girl, and her friend Patrick learn not just about silkworms, but also about tolerance, prejudice, friendship, patience, and more. Reprint.

Project Mulberry

Jeni Enjaian

Nothing stood out to me about this book, nothing positive and nothing negative. This felt like a standard, run of the mill middle grades book. The main character has a best friend and participates in a 4H type program. For their project they choose silkworms and the main character struggles with the project because she thinks it's too Korean. The narrative chronicles the lifespan of the project and a bit of character growth throughout. Everything feels exceptionally cookie cutter throughout. Park also adds in a bit of "breaking the 4th wall" by having "conversations" between herself and her main character after every chapter. I absolutely did not like that.
All in all, an average "meh" book.

Julia Song and her friend Patrick would love to win a blue ribbon, maybe even two, at the state fair. They’ve always done projects together, and they work well as a team. This time, though, they’re having trouble coming up with just the right project. Then Julia’s mother offers a suggestion: They can raise silkworms, as she did when she was a girl in Korea. Patrick thinks it’s a great idea. Of course there are obstacles—for example, where will they get mulberry leaves, the only thing silkworms eat?—but nothing they can’t handle. Julia isn’t so sure. The club where kids do their projects is all about traditional American stuff, and raising silkworms just doesn’t fit in. Moreover, the author, Ms. Park, seems determined to make Julia’s life as complicated as possible, no matter how hard Julia tries to talk her out of it. In this contemporary novel, Linda Sue Park delivers a funny, lively story that illuminates both the process of writing a novel and the meaning of growing up American.

Project Mulberry

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