Storybook Favorites
Badass Biblical Women
I enjoy reading about the experiences and perspectives of women because as a woman, it can be empowering. I thought this particular piece would be interesting because a lot of biblical literature focuses on men and even when women are mentioned, it does not really give insight to their position. Further reading showed the author was very intentional with her piece. Three women (Judith, Bathsheba, and Ruth) are chosen with quite different backgrounds to highlight the diversity of women in the bible, as the author emphasizes. These female chronicles are not meant to argue how these women demonstrated feminism or point out the misogyny in the biblical context. Rather, it is to give insight to what their lives are like which we do not usually read or hear about, which in itself is breaking barriers. What I appreciated most is the author's note after the story. These notes contextualize a story which can be almost overwhelming to read at first. Not only are these experiences more extreme than what most would encounter today, there are different socio-cultural factors at-play which are important to understand these women's decision-making. My favorite story was of Ruth. As the author points out, she is likely the most popular of the three which made me not want to enjoy hers the most (I enjoy rooting for the underdog!). Yet, the unassuming nature of her tale and her personality drew me in. The design was quite easy to navigate. I also liked she added a picture of each of the women.
Tales of Mount Olympus High
I thought this storybook was absolutely adorable. I could deduce from the title it most likely was going to be centered around teenagers and Greek mythology, which I was correct. Hearing the gossip from the perspective of Harmonia gave the story a more casual tone (fitting for this kind of dialogue) and as though they are present. I also felt her perspective truly is plausible if her mother was a Greek Goddess and father a Greek God. It embodies all the worries and hopes a typical teenage girl would have at that age: school, friends, fitting in, boys, etc. The story is not limited to her experiences with her crush, but the troubles of switching schools, balancing school and friends, etc. I am personally a hopeless romantic and a sucker for these kinds of romantic comedy stories so I found myself continuously reading. The storybook was kind of hard to navigate, from the small-font text links and the light blue colors. More pictures would have helped visualize the characters to further draw people in, but nonetheless, it was all very intriguing. A lot of Greek mythology is just ancient drama, modernizing it seems fitting.
(picture obtained through a Google search for 'yellow submarine', link to image)
LSD in a Yellow Submarine
I usually associate a yellow submarine with the Beatles, so I knew there had to be some connection, but I never suspected it would play out how this storybook does. The introduction is captivating for many reasons. It makes references (as a Beatle fan this can excite you), is worded well, and keeps making you ponder.. why? So you keep reading to find out. Yet, it still does a great job of laying the framework out for the rest for the story whether a Beatles fan or not, which truly makes it a gem. The other parts of the storybook are great as well. The design was easy to navigate and I think ideal. It was bright, but not too bright. Font was legible. The designs and pictures were relevant and helped make the page appealing. While this review might be the smallest of the three, this storybook I think captured all aspects of what these were meant to do. It is not to detract the time and creativity it takes to create any of the storybooks, but this one I think is a great example of engaging content and alluring imagery.
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