My Key - Amal Karzai - ★★

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AUTHOR: Amal Karzai
GENRE: Children's Picture Book.
PUBLICATION DATE: November 2, 2021
RATING: 2 stars.

This didn’t quite work out the way I thought it would.

A little girl is having a dull day as she wants to visit the library but her mamma just said “later”. While sitting on the sidewalk complaining about the unfairness of it all to her cat, she suddenly discovers two apparently ordinary objects appear near her: a ball and a key. But these objects are magical and turn her boring day in a day of excitement and adventure by getting her past the locked library door.

Sounds good? Yeah, it felt appealing to me too. But this is a case where the theme is good, the implementation isn’t. The idea is that libraries can take you on a wonderful adventure right through the book in your hands. This is a lovely thought and absolutely true. But the way it is written turns this beautiful opinion into a concept so abstract that only the most precocious of children will understand the underlying points of the story. (Heck, even I had to read it twice and still ended up with only a hazy idea of the proceedings.)

The tale doesn’t flow smoothly but seems to jump randomly from scene to scene. Rather than creating excitement at the adventures, the book creates confusion and bewilderment at what’s happening. There’s no revelation about what or how the ball and the key work, and no personal detail about the girl.

This book is the Gold Medal Winner of the 2020 Key Colors Illustrators Competition. As such, I had assumed that at least the illustrations would make me happy. Sadly, they didn’t. The sketches are quite dark and blurry and the colours are more in earthy palettes than vibrant, fantastical tones. The illustrations didn’t look magical to me but dull and boring. The girl looks different in almost every panel.

Overall, this was a disappointment as I found both the story and the graphics quite weird. I don’t know whom to recommend this to, so please read other reviews and make up your mind about the appeal of this book. It just wasn’t the right fit for me.

My thanks to Clavis Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “My Key”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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