Library Intern Book Reviews
Publisher
Tundra Books
City
New York, New York, United States of America
Date of Publication
2018
ISBN
9781770495593
Date of Review
2019
Disciplines
Library and Information Science | Modern Literature
Keywords
Children's literature, reviews
Recommended Citation
Brookins, Cory L., "Review of Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey" (2019). Library Intern Book Reviews. 268.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/268
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Review
This is the story of Mary, a little girl who is unhappy with her life. To escape, she often finds herself in her imagination, thinking up daring stories to avoid the realities of life. She and her sister run off and begin travelling Europe with a poet. Eventually, they come to stay with some friends. On a stormy night, they decide to hold a contest of who can write the best ghost story. Mary struggles to come up with a story until one night, when all these various ideas she has had in her head culminate into one story about a mad scientist and his disturbing creation. The book closes by telling of the legacy of Frankenstein, and how it all began with a girl named Mary who liked to imagine things.
This book is written well. It presents eighteen years of Mary’s life succinctly and clearly, not leaving any big holes in the story. The illustrations are lovely. They are structured in a way that feels like a masterfully constructed collage. The colors are generally dark, but there are splashes of brightness across a few pages. The book does well combining history with a bit of inspiration by pointing children to dream and imagine bigger things than they think they can. It would serve well as a learning tool pointing children towards that goal. Highly recommend. Cory Brookins, Centennial Library Intern, Cedarville University