Book Review: In Blossum

In Blossom by Cheon Yooju

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This feels like a children's book written and illustrated by a minimalist. And so (as the exact opposite, a collector) I read it three times and still don't really 'get it'.
The pictures are subdued and lack colour (even though the setting is spring). So it lacks stimulus for younger children to be engaged. The words are nice and simple so it could possibly be used as an introductory reader story but it's very short so a child could easily memorize the book before they knew how to actually 'read' it. My five year old niece is doing this right now. She will 'read' me a book but only one of the five she has memorized. While a great showing of her talent in memorization, we keep having to remind her that it's not the same as reading.

I am assuming the use of a cat and dog is as our primary characters is to show that people/animals can be friends with the most unlikely partner. In this case, a cat and a dog that are usually at odds with one another become 'unlikely' friends by the end. And that the use of sushi is an attempt to add a multicultural aspect to the story. Unfortunately for me even after reading it three times, I can honestly say that I was bored, never mind how the average child is likely to feel.
Now, that said, maybe a child that feels overwhelmed a lot would love the simplicity of this story. There may be an audience for it; I just don't think it's for the broad audience of most children.

The other thing that struck me is how odd it is to offer food that has had fluff (pollen) land on it to someone. Perhaps I have a bit of a germ phobia but it just felt weird to offer someone food that has had things landed on it flying around in the air. I get that the fluff is being used as the 'connection' between the dog and cat to actual chat with one another; but I just can't get over how odd it is to me.

Overall, this isn't a bad story. The morale is good and the overall sense of the story is fine. I just can't imagine reading or gifting it to any of the small children in my life.

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