The publisher describes The Boy Who Loved Boxes as a "modern-day allegory [exploring] the illusion of control and the pursuit of peace." With the subtitle of "a children's book for adults," I was very interested in what deep lessons would be held within.
After sampling the first few pages, I loved the whimsical illustrations and the surprising pops of color for the boxes. Where I lost interest was when the pandemic caused the grown-up boy to dump everything in all his boxes (say what?!). As an allegory, that sounds like covid was responsible for single-handedly disrupting every single area of one's life. Yes, there was a global impact; yes, there were inconveniences but I would not say that every area of life was "out of control" as depicted by dumped boxes. That idea would have been more believable if the character were still a boy and not an adult. Or maybe the author is implying that a crisis often reverts adults to the child version of themselves?
I think the concept had great promise and with a bit more fleshing out, I think there could be a real gem of a book. Perhaps help the reader begin to see how a crisis can force us to re-evaluate our boxes which can end up being a good thing. Adults can draw their own conclusions and parallels to real life but I'm not sure the average child would. I think some questions for reflection would have been helpful at the back (for both children and adult readers).
The book while having some interesting illustrations, and an interesting premise, didn't quite live up to its full potential.
Disclaimor: I received a free digital copy of The Boy Who Loved Boxes from BookSirens for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received and views expressed are entirely mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment