Cait's Reviews > Liesl & Po

If you don't have this on your to read list, put in not there right now.

Ahem. Come around, everyone, and join me and my cat in this amazing review of a truly amazing book.

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Such a peaceful scene........my cat and me.

I know that I don't write many five-star reviews, or even give out many five-star ratings in general, which I why I waited a solid day to let my feelings germinate about whether or not that this book truly deserved such high praise from me.

And I can honestly one-hundered percent tell you all with absolute certainty that this book does.

I honestly wish that more authors would write like Oliver does; even if they aren't strictly children's story writers like Oliver. Her writing is so prolific and gorgeous. Basically, kind of like what I said on my A Monster Calls review, she makes you think and opens you up to new ideas that would never had occurred to me before without experiencing it personally. That, in and of itself is one of the grew attributes of Liesl and Po. She makes you feel like you're actually right there, standing alongside Liesl as she hovers on not just the threshold of the attic where she's been kept for over a year, but also on the precipice about making a choice between staying with what she knows or becoming who she wants to be. Who she was before. When she makes her choice and steps out of the room with this upcoming quote, the realization is just as much of a breath of fresh air as it is to her:

Perhaps that's how the sparrows did it too; perhaps they were looking so hard at the peaks and tips of the new rooftops coated with dew, and the vast new horizon, that they only forgot that they did not know how to fly until they were already in midair

Just to add icing to this already delicious cake, she is able to weave together incredibly beautiful phrasing and then to come back and end them with such simple, matter-of-fact statements is altogether mind-blowing and beautiful in its own way:

Time ticked forward. Stars collided. Planets were born and died. Everywhere and in every fold and bend of the universe, strange and miraculous things happened.
And so it was, just then.

I bow down to your wordy prowess, Oliver. And weep because I will never reach that same kind of level. I just said wordy, for pete's sakes.

The plot and different POVs of Liesl and Po are also great. It just chugs along and always kept me entertained
as I read; there was never a point where I was totally bored. If I wasn't reading about Liesl and Po on their adventure together I was learning about the amazing Other Side from Po, being disgusted by Liesl's stepmother, and learning about all of the characters. Now, normally, all of those POVs just doesn't work, but without them in the story, I don't think the final scene would have had the same affect as it ending up having for me. I doubt that this will happen, but if the many point of views bother you or you think that they're boring, just wait for the ending of this novel and it will all work out. I sure as hell got a little misty-eyed by the end of this amazing little tale so, yes, have a couple of tissues to dab your eyes. It's not as gut-wrenchingly sad as A Monster Calls (another great great great story that you should all check out if you haven't already) but it still twinges the heartstrings in just the right way to get a reaction out of me every time I read that section.

The famous poet Pablo Neruda (who is pretty much my favorite poet, and if you haven't seen any of his work you should really check it out) really helps to explain this book as a whole. From one of his most famous works Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines, he states, "loving is so short, forgetting is so long" Besides the great eloquence and sheer amazingness from that statement along, not forgetting the poem as a whole, that's really what this story is about. No matter how much you try, you cannot escape, cannot "forget", yourself; your true self. The Lady Premire will, for all her posturing, be that whiny, poor, fisherman's daughter. A little, blonde-haired, girl with a face to match her kind heart locked up in an attic for over a year will never stop being that bright, creative soul. A small ghost named Po, and a cat/dog who mwarks his way through conversation will, no matter how much the Other Side deigns to pull them apart; make them shadows of their former selves, will eventually return to the light, to who they were before. Even nature, the biggest, most complicated, and, yet, one of the most simple matters of our existence will go back to what it used to be-what it should have been. However, whether that ineffable (if anyone has read this book already you may give me some props for that) part of you; your Essence, essentially, is good or bad is up to you to make as a child.

Which is why I believe that childhood, and what you do with it, is so enormously stressed in Liesel and Po. That's the time where you make yourself, mould yourself into who you will always be, even if you change paths as an adult. A little boy who grew up wanting to be a fireman and is now an adult will always be, deep down, that little boy wearing an overly large fireman's jacket and bright red hat; maybe even holding a whistle, strutting around the house proudly displaying that he is the protector of that house. Maybe he does become a fireman/police officer as an adult, but he will almost always be a brave soul, even if that little boy grows up to be a marketing salesman. Another girl *cough cough* me *cough cough* who was always ran around catching frogs in her muddy little stream, attended animal adoption gatherings like it was a party, and was enamored with doctors shows and watching surgeries even from the age of seven, will probably do something in the medical field as an adult. Even if she doesn't she will most likely always be a kind and caring soul. Childhood is something that's enormously precious to each and every single one of us, and since most children won't exactly understand that if we tell them, and that mostly ruins the point of childhood; that soft, brilliant, innocence, it's our job as adults to just give them the nudge in the right direction. They still might make it there without us, that's one of the great attributes of children, but isn't that the point of life? One of the points that Oliver tries to teach? Why even claim that you have life if you do nothing with it? Nothing productive that changes the world- whether it's by drawing a small ghost paintings of trains with wings and honoring your father's final request, or giving a small little boy a hat who looks like his ears are cold even if it means chasing him across the country to do it?

It's your life, folks. Do what Oliver suggests in this book first by reading it, understanding it, then doing it. You never know what may come of it.

Thank you all for joining me in this little chat. You may pet the pet owl on your way out:

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And if you don't want the owl, you may also have this kitty cat:

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