Book Review: Princess Shawl
Someone on my friendslist (sorry, I forgot who) pointed to this page a while ago: The Heroic Journey in Shirley Lim's Princess Shawl | Cabinet Des Fées, and I made a note to find the book and read it. As it happened, I ran into it at the library in the children's section, so it came home with us.
I'd been curious. Here was a fantasy book for children (though some sites call it YA) by an Asian author, writing of a young girl in Singapore of Peranakan descent (I think), coming into possession of a magical item, the shawl, that would take her back in time (and to different places in Malaya) to discover her roots and save Princess Hang Li Po from a bomoh's curse/exile in the 15th Century. The premise was so promising that I had been imagining great stuff for this book, even if the page count was much smaller than expected. In fact, the book had kinda stood out on the shelves due to its small size. I finished it in a day. Because it was short.
I'm going to admit something possibly blasphemous to local literature teachers: When I was in secondary school, we had to study Minfong Ho's Sing to the Dawn, and I was hugely underwhelmed by it. I generally liked its plot and what it covered about land rights, religion and commercialization, sexism and rights to education... but man if I hadn't found the language clunky, the angst OTT, and the reading level of the book more suited for primary school. (Granted, I was reading huge novels and serials by that point and thought that my standards should have applied to everyone.) Princess Shawl reminds me a lot of that experience, but with less substance to stanch my disappointment with its writing. I don't know whether it's because I'm older now and was not able to read this with the intended audience's eyes.
Mei Li, the protagonist, is nine years old going on ten, and the general rule of thumb for children's books (usually) would tell me this means eight to nine-year-olds would connect with her most. I would not expect purple prose in this small book, but that's what stood out: there were repetitive visual descriptions, various similes and metaphors mixed in single paragraphs that would take me out of the story, two pages talking about true love (in a book that is quite thin to begin with) and where I really would have liked more information or development, the story was thin and rushed through. Mei Li's character did not have much of one; I didn't see any personal struggles other than her puzzling over the book's central riddle/prophecy that required "a daughter who is strange" (Mei Li of course) to complete the quest. Among my many peeves with this book? The "strange" in that line did not mean unusual, it meant a girl who's a stranger to Princess Li Po and her namesakes. Mei Li is as normal a girl as you can get, with fairly normal curiousity, initiative, intelligence and reading habits (Harry Potter). This makes the "daughter who is strange" rather run-of-the-mill. And in the quest, solutions and obvious clues are always given to her beforehand, so much so it really minimizes any sense of conflict or challenge at the end, because it all goes smoothly and as expected. In fairness, Mei Li does grow over the course of the book.
In a book with time travel, even fantasy, there are certain things I wanted to see, but that aren't there. Princess Hang Li Po is not an ancestor of Mei Li's. But Mei Li has to make sure the princess receives her shawl or else... well, honestly there's not much at stake, because Princess Li Po's curse has no threat or impact on Mei Li's present (would that have made the book too scary?) and neither would it change or save history to fail or succeed in the quest (nothing about this was mentioned at all). It's possible this non-threat troubled me in a way it would not bother a younger reader, but dealing with this would have made the book stronger. (Lots of things might have; my nitpicks were many.) Another time-travel/history related complaint? Every time (except once) Mei Li went into the past it was to meet a wise, strong female ancestor. That in itself is fine, but since her family is Peranakan (though I'm going from muddled clues here), I just wish that the significance of being Peranakan--descending from Princess Hang Li Po's retinue from the 15th Century (as opposed to a more recent, second-wave Chinese immigrant to Malaya)--was explored a little more (hell, just a mention or highlight would have been nice), just to give a clue how that early arrival led to more matriarchal families with strong females, and a culture that is both Chinese and Malay and unique in the Chinese diaspora.
I'm possibly asking too much for a children's book, but I don't think it's ever too early to make a child more aware of culture--especially if this book was meant for Malaysian and Singaporean kids. (Or does the book assume these kids already know all this regional history? In Singapore, some history is taught in Social Studies when students are nine or ten. Mei Li herself doesn't seem to know her country's or region's history, nor think about it much during or after her treks to the past. Her ignorance in the story may be understandable, but then the lack of mentioning the importance of the historical events in the book is not.)
This review also points out the puzzling caricature of the Mei Li's family's Filipino maid and her accent. I too found it weird--not to mention if the writer was going to make an issue of speaking accents, then language and other accents should have come up as Mei Li interacts with so many characters in the past--then again, it all happen in her dreams and presumably they all come pre-translated into English with a smattering of Malay. (I kept wondering where the TARDIS was.) Chapter Four irritated me no end--much is made of several characters in that chapter being born on Thursday, including Mei Li and the princess, and the constant harping that "Thursday's child has far to go" which is supposed to cue you for the quest being long and arduous (which it isn't) and supposed to make you go boohoo for the princess and an orphan doesn't, because (1) you're wondering why all these Chinese characters are so hung up on a 19th-Century English fortune-telling nursery rhyme, instead of say, their ba zi, and (2) a Wednesday's child is more f*&ked. But you know, all this is less important than the author pushing pushing pushing this meme for the chapter. (It's possible I was ultra-sensitive on this point because I was born on a Wednesday. Hence the woe. Blame my birthday.)
Googling other reviews of this book turned up few, but mostly disappointed reviews or comments (I recommend the one I linked to above). I think most readers who picked it up just wanted more out of it--because it rather pales in quality compared with foreign children's fantasy books, and that really bites because the story idea was so local and so promising. The length/writing/editing just lets it down.
This book may be great for a child, but for anyone older reading it for the Southeast Asian fantasy, it'd probably be a more enjoyable experience with fewer expectations.
I'd been curious. Here was a fantasy book for children (though some sites call it YA) by an Asian author, writing of a young girl in Singapore of Peranakan descent (I think), coming into possession of a magical item, the shawl, that would take her back in time (and to different places in Malaya) to discover her roots and save Princess Hang Li Po from a bomoh's curse/exile in the 15th Century. The premise was so promising that I had been imagining great stuff for this book, even if the page count was much smaller than expected. In fact, the book had kinda stood out on the shelves due to its small size. I finished it in a day. Because it was short.
I'm going to admit something possibly blasphemous to local literature teachers: When I was in secondary school, we had to study Minfong Ho's Sing to the Dawn, and I was hugely underwhelmed by it. I generally liked its plot and what it covered about land rights, religion and commercialization, sexism and rights to education... but man if I hadn't found the language clunky, the angst OTT, and the reading level of the book more suited for primary school. (Granted, I was reading huge novels and serials by that point and thought that my standards should have applied to everyone.) Princess Shawl reminds me a lot of that experience, but with less substance to stanch my disappointment with its writing. I don't know whether it's because I'm older now and was not able to read this with the intended audience's eyes.
Mei Li, the protagonist, is nine years old going on ten, and the general rule of thumb for children's books (usually) would tell me this means eight to nine-year-olds would connect with her most. I would not expect purple prose in this small book, but that's what stood out: there were repetitive visual descriptions, various similes and metaphors mixed in single paragraphs that would take me out of the story, two pages talking about true love (in a book that is quite thin to begin with) and where I really would have liked more information or development, the story was thin and rushed through. Mei Li's character did not have much of one; I didn't see any personal struggles other than her puzzling over the book's central riddle/prophecy that required "a daughter who is strange" (Mei Li of course) to complete the quest. Among my many peeves with this book? The "strange" in that line did not mean unusual, it meant a girl who's a stranger to Princess Li Po and her namesakes. Mei Li is as normal a girl as you can get, with fairly normal curiousity, initiative, intelligence and reading habits (Harry Potter). This makes the "daughter who is strange" rather run-of-the-mill. And in the quest, solutions and obvious clues are always given to her beforehand, so much so it really minimizes any sense of conflict or challenge at the end, because it all goes smoothly and as expected. In fairness, Mei Li does grow over the course of the book.
In a book with time travel, even fantasy, there are certain things I wanted to see, but that aren't there. Princess Hang Li Po is not an ancestor of Mei Li's. But Mei Li has to make sure the princess receives her shawl or else... well, honestly there's not much at stake, because Princess Li Po's curse has no threat or impact on Mei Li's present (would that have made the book too scary?) and neither would it change or save history to fail or succeed in the quest (nothing about this was mentioned at all). It's possible this non-threat troubled me in a way it would not bother a younger reader, but dealing with this would have made the book stronger. (Lots of things might have; my nitpicks were many.) Another time-travel/history related complaint? Every time (except once) Mei Li went into the past it was to meet a wise, strong female ancestor. That in itself is fine, but since her family is Peranakan (though I'm going from muddled clues here), I just wish that the significance of being Peranakan--descending from Princess Hang Li Po's retinue from the 15th Century (as opposed to a more recent, second-wave Chinese immigrant to Malaya)--was explored a little more (hell, just a mention or highlight would have been nice), just to give a clue how that early arrival led to more matriarchal families with strong females, and a culture that is both Chinese and Malay and unique in the Chinese diaspora.
I'm possibly asking too much for a children's book, but I don't think it's ever too early to make a child more aware of culture--especially if this book was meant for Malaysian and Singaporean kids. (Or does the book assume these kids already know all this regional history? In Singapore, some history is taught in Social Studies when students are nine or ten. Mei Li herself doesn't seem to know her country's or region's history, nor think about it much during or after her treks to the past. Her ignorance in the story may be understandable, but then the lack of mentioning the importance of the historical events in the book is not.)
This review also points out the puzzling caricature of the Mei Li's family's Filipino maid and her accent. I too found it weird--not to mention if the writer was going to make an issue of speaking accents, then language and other accents should have come up as Mei Li interacts with so many characters in the past--then again, it all happen in her dreams and presumably they all come pre-translated into English with a smattering of Malay. (I kept wondering where the TARDIS was.) Chapter Four irritated me no end--much is made of several characters in that chapter being born on Thursday, including Mei Li and the princess, and the constant harping that "Thursday's child has far to go" which is supposed to cue you for the quest being long and arduous (which it isn't) and supposed to make you go boohoo for the princess and an orphan doesn't, because (1) you're wondering why all these Chinese characters are so hung up on a 19th-Century English fortune-telling nursery rhyme, instead of say, their ba zi, and (2) a Wednesday's child is more f*&ked. But you know, all this is less important than the author pushing pushing pushing this meme for the chapter. (It's possible I was ultra-sensitive on this point because I was born on a Wednesday. Hence the woe. Blame my birthday.)
Googling other reviews of this book turned up few, but mostly disappointed reviews or comments (I recommend the one I linked to above). I think most readers who picked it up just wanted more out of it--because it rather pales in quality compared with foreign children's fantasy books, and that really bites because the story idea was so local and so promising. The length/writing/editing just lets it down.
This book may be great for a child, but for anyone older reading it for the Southeast Asian fantasy, it'd probably be a more enjoyable experience with fewer expectations.