A few years back, I gave myself a mission to introduce my youngest maternal cousin (who didn’t like reading at all) to local authors and fun stories. I started with Sherlock Sam, then DimSum Warriors. And as she takes her PSLE this year, I was scouring the market for something she could enjoy, and relate to as a person who is about to go on a few changes in her life. Enter Mount E.M.I.L.Y.
Set at Mount Emily Girls’ School, the series zooms in on best friends Patsy and Elena. In a spot of adventure, the girls find themselves transported almost three decades into the past, and trapped in the bodies of their mothers. Do they find their way home? Or do they end up losing their identities and friendship? The book presents a fast-paced adventure, egging you to turn each page to satiate your desire to know what happens to these two girls next. As a story reader (a.k.a. A person who reads for the story rather than the language), this appeases me. At the same time, I know my cousin can go through this without getting bored with overly descriptive exposition. At the same time, it tugs at the heartstrings, with Patsy’s inner struggles in the face of her longtime best friend. Issues like the questioning of keeping their friendship with two separate and often-clashing personalities - with Elena being the popular one, often expecting Patsy to be available and committed 24/7, but often ignoring Patsy for her other friends once the former presents herself to be less than enthusiastic. These are common issues teenagers face and it was comforting to know that the characters were not all just smiles and giggles. But before I leave you, there has to be a shoutout to the various references Low managed to slip into the story - pay phones, the old Bras Basah Complex, and of course (and most importantly), A&W. I’d go back in time just to have my Coney Dog and Curly Fries at the A&W Ang Mo Kio branch, so I’d understand why at least one of them would want to stay in 1987 for a while. The entire series spans Patsy and Elena’s lives in Mount Emily Girls’ School - with each book for each year that they were in Secondary School. Will Patsy and Elena stay best friends and graduate together? Start with Mount E.M.I.L.Y. and find out! The Mount EMILY series is written by Low Ying Ping and published by Epigram Books. You can find out more about the series here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
StoriesMy adventures with in urban speculative fiction. Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|