Something intriguing. Something unusual. Something you should read

My mom is like the most creative teacher in the world.  She really masters balancing the effectiveness of traditional education with the excitement of new learning.  When I first found this book in her car, based on the girly teen romance cover, I was all heyyyyy who's other daughter are you hanging out with! Then she said it was for her kids at school and I wasn't jealous anymore I thought, man, I wish my teacher gave me this to read for homework. And then I opened it up and saw that there was nothing to read.

It was art, everywhere. Mixed media and scrapbook-like pages and drawings and photographs and paintings and all of it was gorgeous. And on the softest paper! I really couldn't take my eyes- or hands for that matter- off the pages.  It was also very overwhelming because on the first page you read something about a missing girl and a boxing gown and you immediately want to know what happened to her and what the hell the boxing gown has to do with it.

But the collections of images and text on each page become parts of a greater story, clues to a mystery you're left to solve. I was flipping back to earlier pages for things I missed and searching photographs for information I didn't have and I pretty much felt like a high-profile detective trying to figure the story out- at one point even put on my fake glasses and navy blazer.

It's a lovely read, and a quick one  if you're as smart and savvy a detective as I am  and it's the kind of book you'll find yourself picking up to flip through again and again, if not just to look at, while you wait for your English muffin to be done toasting.

Definitely worth the 12 or whatever dollars.
Definitely makes a cool coffee table addition.  
Definitely makes you want Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral to make more.

My favorite review:
"Reading Chopsticks is like watching people kiss in the street: it's private, it's beautiful, it's lonely, it's wild, it's secret, it's everywhere and you can't look away." 

-Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up


My suggestion order- Buy the actual book. Save your Nook/Kindle Fire space for something more Times New Roman.