I grabbed this book from the shelf at my library because the title was captivating and it was a Junior Library Guild Selection. It had to good, right? Wrong. This book turned out to be a sore disappointment. It follows the stories of three "littlepoors", who are tiny, about the size of a rat, and poor, named Warner, Prayer, and Usher. Warner and Prayer are siblings whose dad has recently died from being stepped on by a cat, and whose Mom is severely injured. They end up leaving their littlepoor neighborhood, attempting to "scale up" (get bigger by getting more munmun). They go on many adventures and change sizes several times. I stopped about halfway through because I got really bored, and I didn't want to know what other trash was in the middle. I skipped to the end, and the end was not very well written either. Overall, the book may be "a powerful look at wealth and class", but it's also boring, badly written, and not worth your time.
Munmun
By Jesse Andrews
| Interest Level | Reading Level | Reading A-Z | ATOS | Word Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grades 9 - 12 | Grade 7 | n/a | 6.6 | 88633 |
In an alternate reality a lot like our world, every person’s physical size is directly proportional to their wealth. The poorest of the poor are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers.
Warner and his sister Prayer are destitute—and tiny. Their size is not just demeaning, but dangerous: day and night they face mortal dangers that bigger richer people don’t ever have to think about, from being mauled by cats to their house getting stepped on. There are no cars or phones built small enough for them, or schools or hospitals, for that matter—there’s no point, when no one that little has any purchasing power, and when salaried doctors and teachers would never fit in buildings so small. Warner and Prayer know their only hope is to scale up, but how can two littlepoors survive in a world built against them?
A brilliant, warm, funny trip, unlike anything else out there, and a social novel for our time in the tradition of 1984 or Invisible Man. Inequality is made intensely visceral by an adventure and tragedy both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Warner and his sister Prayer are destitute—and tiny. Their size is not just demeaning, but dangerous: day and night they face mortal dangers that bigger richer people don’t ever have to think about, from being mauled by cats to their house getting stepped on. There are no cars or phones built small enough for them, or schools or hospitals, for that matter—there’s no point, when no one that little has any purchasing power, and when salaried doctors and teachers would never fit in buildings so small. Warner and Prayer know their only hope is to scale up, but how can two littlepoors survive in a world built against them?
A brilliant, warm, funny trip, unlike anything else out there, and a social novel for our time in the tradition of 1984 or Invisible Man. Inequality is made intensely visceral by an adventure and tragedy both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
ISBN-13: 9781419728716
ISBN-10: 1419728717
Published on 4/3/2018
Binding: Hardcover
Number of pages: 416