Project Mulberry

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park was a piece of children's literature that was meant to focus on Asian Pacific Americans, however I found that racism throughout the book did not catch my attention as much as it did with the character Mr. Dixon. The integration of race through black characters seemed to take away from Park's story. Had Park given more information regarding WHY Julia's mother made a statement about disliking black people this theme would have been an important issue to discuss, however there was not much of a discussion at all. Instead Park decided to let the reader judge for themselves what they thought about racism in this novel. Racism is such a devastating issue in the world even though much change has occurred since the past. It does however continue to be a sensitive topic. Perhaps too sensitive for Park to relate to? I felt that she avoided the topic and used the character of Julia to do so. I was least impressed with this novel compared to any other we have read throughout class!