Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Firework Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman (1999)

I somehow was expecting a bit more from the author of the Goldan Compass trilogy, but since this was a very short - 2CD - listen, I guess it had a few interesting ideas. A girl lives with her father, who makes fireworks and teaches her to make them. Her best friend is responsible for a white elephant, who at times gets covered with graffiti and advertisements. She goes on a quest, etc., etc. Maybe I've just been spoiled by some excellent, innovative writing for young adults, so this just felt formulaic to me, but would probably just be fine for young readers.

Looks like I have to amend this. Turns out, this is probably full of Asian folklore that I did not even realize. The white elephant in the story was given to people the ruler did not like, and they were responsible for feeding it and taking care of it until they went broke - so it was an unwanted gift, that you wanted to give away. This is the actual background to "white elephant" gifts of today.

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