Reading Robyn
I am a lover of libraries, a reader of everything, a girl easily swayed by pretty pictures, and overall just your average, nerdy fairy princess.
2013 is the year I'm finally keeping up a regular reading blog Reading Robyn! There I post extended versions of my GR reviews so be sure to check that out!
I always seem to be on the move having lived in seven cities and counting in my nineteen years. I'm not on the run from the law as many have assumed (at least I don't think so), but moving around has given me an appreciation for how places make stories and people make memories. While change is inevitable, books are the friends that I take with me from place to place. They comforted me when I was sick, they push me to continue to learn and grow into myself, and most importantly they opened me up to the possibilities of living in thousands of places all at once.
I primarily read YA fiction, as well as a lot of graphic novels and manga. However, I tend to be this combination of odd reads, so expect the unexpected!
Cheesy Life Quote: "In this world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself." - Frantz Fanon
The Color of Earth
A pinnacle part of growing up is the discovery of sexuality. What is it? What does it mean? What is sex? What is love? And how does everyone coexist with all this sexual tension?! It's difficult to remember what it was like when childhood curiosity first leads a person to begin asking questions. In The Color of Earth we take an intimate look at the beginning of a young girl's journey into adulthood. Ehwa lives in Korea in a rural village with her widowed mother. Under the back drop of their relationship we see them both discovering and re-discovering love. Writing and illustrating such a delicate subject is understandably difficult, but Kim Dong Hwa was down right masterful at getting his ideas across. Through the use of nature and beautiful artistry he shows womanhood is a way that captures it with all the proper seriousness and levity it deserves. When I tried to come up with something that would sum up what this embodies, I keep wanting to use the phrase "blush of youth".The story itself is not dramatic, it's much like a extended narrative version of "the talk". I found myself really enjoying the way everything comes together and creates such an interesting story, with wonderful characters. As for what kept this from being a five star book for me, I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the use of metaphor in the story. On one hand it was really great element that shaped the characters and the story in a big way, but it was at times heavy handed and a little too overpowering. Then there was just some disappointment in terms of the printing. As I said earlier the art is amazing and there are just wonderful scenes in the book. However, it felt like some of the life had been sucked out of the art because of the printing process. I don't know what Kim Dong Hwa's preferences are, but some of the scenery work, the flowers, the fields, the towering trees would have just been mind blowing in colour. It wouldn't even have had to been full colour, just something! (Also, it's COLOUR dammit!) The Color of Earth is such a stand out that I am incredibly glad that I get to read more!