Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It was my oldest who read The Cardboard Kingdom first; she found it in her school library and then told me that my second girlie and I would likely also enjoy it.  I duly checked it out of our trusty county library and finished it tonight, promising that second girlie that I’d then review it and she could have it in the morning.  (I had to be a bit forceful about the “in the morning” idea–she was trying to swipe it anyway.)

I found the premise and its execution to be out of the common way, in part because there is no one main character.  Not all of the sixteen kids receive the same number of pages, but the story is very much about the kids in a neighborhood building cardboard alter-egos for themselves and enjoying the resulting play all summer long.  More than one of the characters displays some non-gender-traditional behavior, which provided plenty of inner consideration for me; what I ultimately decided, however, is that that’s going to be a thing in this world, and the overriding message here is an important one for kids.  “This is who you are?  Okay!  Let’s play!”  There is a bully whose background reveals a whole lot about why he struggles, there are kids from single-parent homes, broken–or breaking–homes, kids from more traditional homes, and a Machiavellian blonde girl with a frighteningly ruthless view of the lemonade stand from a business point of view.  (Of all the group, she freaked me out a little.)  Some of the pages were wordless, or nearly so, while others sported an average-to-spare amount of text.  All in all, I’m expecting Girlie #2 to love it.

For me?  It was rather a sweet read, perhaps because my childhood was more solitary (not just because there weren’t a ton of kids nearby, mind you–I was also an inveterate bookworm).  If your kids love graphic novels about ordinary kids, and you love watching kids use their imaginations to play, then read it together.

Good times are sure to be had by all.