tag fiction
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I’m Caterpillar No.7 in 3rd Graders’ Homeroom No.2
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The special adventures of a wiggly caterpillar Born into the nest box in homeroom no. 2 of 3rd graders is the seventh caterpillar. Christened “Caterpillar No. 7,” this larva is very curious about humans and the world, unlike his peers, which are wary of humans and focus all of their energy only on becoming butterflies. Indeed, the insect captivates the children by observing them instead of being observed and showing off its skill at creating nifty patterns with cabbage leaves instead of solely eating them to live. The youngsters bestow on the unusual Caterpillar No. 7 the new name of “Patterned Caterpillar.” One day, however, cabbage leaves tainted with pesticides enter the hitherto peaceful nest box, thus putting the larvae in 3rd graders’ homeroom no. 2 in a dire crisis. Instead of powerlessly waiting, the Patterned Caterpillar send signals for help to the children… Will the youngsters recognize the Patterned Caterpillar’s desperate plea? Will the litter bug manage to turn into a butterfly without any trouble?
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Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 6-8, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
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The Umbrella Library
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One rainy day, Geon-yul, who has no family member to bring an umbrella to school, comes up with the idea for an “umbrella library” during a presentation session on the spur of the moment: that is, the school should have a place from which children can borrow umbrellas, like a library from which books can be checked out, to help those who do not happen to have umbrellas on rainy days. Though the boy is a friendless, his idea unexpectedly wins support from fellow youngsters so that, amidst concerned opposition from grownups, 5th-year students in homeroom no. 2 come together to create an umbrella library. In the process of following the children as they occasionally face frustration but soon muster courage and overcome adults’ opposition step by step, readers will find themselves cheering for the successful opening of the umbrella library. Indeed, the youngsters’ efforts to make a meaningful change at school, a microcosm of society, even exhibit healthy civic consciousness. One of the strengths of this work is depicting an attitude of helping disadvantaged people through perplexing or troubling situations that everyone will have encountered, thus readily arousing readers’ empathy, instead of presenting it merely as an abstract obligation. In scenes where the children willingly show consideration for others instead of acting from a sense of duty and feel happiness greater than what they have given to others, readers, too, will feel rewarded. Another gift left by the umbrella library is the creation of mutual trust, dependence, and friendship among the youngsters, who were busy bickering with one another at the beginning of the story. Storyline Geon-yul, a 12-year-old boy, has difficulties with school life because his father is bedridden after being in an unforeseen accident while performing a good deed. When the child whom Dad saved during the accident enters his school so that chance encounters occur, the protagonist is reminded of his father and pained even more. One rainy day, without a family member to bring him an umbrella, Geon-yul presents the idea for an umbrella library during a presentation session on the spur of the moment, which unexpectedly wins his classmates’ support. Amidst adults’ concerned opposition, he and his peers come together to create the umbrella library, and the boy gradually comes to understand Dad’s intentions and feelings, which he has refused to do so far. Will the children be able to open the umbrella library as they wish?
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Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 8-10, Changbi Books > Children
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Yeong-hui Nextdoor
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A strange swell that infiltrates simple daily life
Fascinating science fiction that will stimulate your intellect and sensibility alike New imagination and intellectual stimulation surely are the greatest reasons and delights for adolescents to read science fiction. Penned based on a careful review of the universe and astronomy, Jeong So-yeon’s works likewise present such joys. For example, “Tea Time with Alice” is founded on the parallel universe theory, according to which worlds other than ours exist concurrently. Established in the four stories in Part 2, which together constitute a roman cycle, is a situation where a megacorporation called Caduceus rules the universe and controls the freedom of movement. Just as “Autumn Wind” shows a food planet where the climate is artificially manipulated to grow produce, even each planet is restricted in its role. However, “scientific imagination” so closely associated with science fiction is not the sole attraction of this collection of tales. Yeong-hui Nextdoor wholly reflects the author’s unique sensibility and individuality, which consist of a sensitive style and a moving lyricism. Representatively, the short story “The Cosmic Style” stars a young woman who has had to give up her long-cherished dream of becoming an astronaut due to disabilities from a car accident. Having raised her daughter alone since her husband’s death, the mother places the wéiqí (go) board in front of the protagonist every night, just as she did before the accident. Playing games with her mother, the heroine repeats, “If the wéiqí board is life, these scars will only leave thin lines. There are many lines by which you can withstand this world” (p. 24). Many years later, she chances on an advertisement to recruit people with disabilities for a space station. Even amidst descriptions of complex problems and power struggles involved in space development, what is conveyed to readers above all is the fervent earnestness of the mother and daughter. Readers will be ineffably moved by the portrayal of the heroine’s frustration due to disabilities, her mother’s silent and all-embracing love, and the courage to start life anew. The shining sensibility of South Korean science fiction
The beautiful and marvelous harmony made by writer Jeong So-yeon A collection of a total of fifteen short stories including two new ones, Yeong-hui Nextdoor gathers all of the works produced by Jeong, who has written steadfastly over the past twelve years. Unlike some science fiction works, which focus on solid scientific frameworks and can feel abstruse, her prose fiction is characterized by a style that lyrically and sensitively depicts the strange swells infiltrating extremely simple lives, thus winning the empathy of a broad readership. As befits a writer concerned with issues including adolescents, sexual identity, and disability, most of the tales in this volume present the topic of alterity and earnestly reflects thoughts on differences, which makes for fascinating reading as well. As such, the book will serve as a good opportunity for teenagers to get a taste of the unique charm of science fiction and to experience a warmhearted gaze at minorities through literature.
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Changbi Books > YA > Fiction, Changbi Books > YA
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The Man Runs Away From Home
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In that they move toward the common destination of humans, the nine works included in this volume of short stories are many yet one. Indeed, rare seems to be prose fiction that inquires into people to the extent as does this collection of tales by Son Hong-gyu. Through a focus on people and a profound perspective and search, he transcends the triteness and quotidianness of his themes. In addition, the author questions the order and rules of human lives and exposes the injustice of reality that impedes them. In the end, he looks at the slope of this world, which is becoming even steeper each day, with a penetrating gaze and imbues his works and the reality surrounding them with warmth through his love for people. The works gathered in The Man Runs away from Home develop the narrative mainly through the uncanniness and esoteric meaning that come into being as the unusual things hidden in our ordinary daily lives are revealed in a moment. At a glance, these unfamiliar things are: incidents rooted in realistic life such as Parkinson’s disease, running away from home, and deaths of family members; and novelistic imagination such as wormholes, a disease that only strikes women who have completed the marriage registration form, and citywide amnesia. “Crying in Jeong’eup” and “A Record of the Man Who Ran away from Home” are tales about ordinary husbands and wives now in the evening of their lives. These men are ordinary heads of families who have aged shabbily in the end even though they parted from the dreams of their youth quite tragically and, at the same time, ordinary husbands who blame and resent their wives for that shabbiness. Because of wives whom they resent, the husbands set out in search for “The Woman from Jeong’eup” and dare to run away from home, respectively. Rewinding their histories, they also seek to find the essence and meaning of their lives, meeting people from their past and surveying bygone days. However, the pages of their lives turned backward bear more traces of failure than of success, and the lists of what they have captured far surpass in length those of what they have missed. Through this, the author exposes the treachery of the system and the injustice of the world, which have rendered the protagonists haggard and base and made human relationships exhausting. Things that are even more beautiful because they seem otherworldly
Works in the “Ballad” cycle (“The Ballad of Wives,” “A Ballad for Wives,” and “The Origin of Ballads”) concern a disease that suddenly strikes ordinary daily lives: it only infects and turns into non-humans women who have completed marriage registration. Tales in this cycle are horrific not solely because the process through which women infected with an unfamiliar illness moan and change into monsters is horrifying and because the allegory of disease is reminiscent of the unhappiness that lurks behind ideas and words such as “wife,” “husband,” and “marriage.” What is disheartening above all is the attitude of the husbands, who name this unspeakable phenomenon a “future that was to arrive some day.” Alongside their wives, who cannot even engage in small talk, these men nod and murmur: “Like married couples who had lived together for so long that they had lost interest in each other or come to hate each other deeply, we were withstanding one another, back to back,” and “although my wife and I were unable to communicate, that fact somehow was not new” (“The Ballad of Wives,” p. 139). In other words, these husbands and wives were “gradually growing distant from each other and becoming perfect strangers” (“A Ballad for Wives,” p. 161). A work that starts with the hypothesis that everyone in a city loses his or her memories in an instant, “A City of Those Who Have Lost Memories” reveals a similar grammar as well. “You must be my husband.” “Then are you my wife?” “Are you… my father, sir?” (pp. 215-
216). This dialogue among a man, a woman, and their daughter, who can remain a family even after having lost memories, which ensure one’s existence, are as unfamiliar as lines from an absurdist play. Nevertheless, these characters perform the parts of family members well. It is because this, too, is a future that can arrive. As if stating that irony was the supreme vessel for holding the truth wholly intact, the author often uses this device in his works. Son’s imagination starkly to reveal the irony of life continues. Perhaps this is simultaneously an attempt to supplement “inevitably impoverished concreteness because one can only experience a different form of life indirectly” (“Loitering”) and a fruit of endeavors to bring readers even closer to the lives in his works. In “The Old Man Who Became an Actor,” a shabby old gentleman obtains money for the wedding ceremony of his daughter and prospective son-in-law, who are reminiscent of his own youth, by voluntarily becoming a pornographic actor. In addition, he is continuously followed by a shabby young man who earlier foretold the protagonist’s old age. While seated on a bench frequented by the elderly gentleman in a threadbare suit, this young man experiences a kind of a wormhole. This is a moment when the two figures invite each other to the same time and space through shabbiness and threadbareness. Discovering faint links between stories in this volume will add to the joy of reading. For example, the men in “Crying in Jeong’eup” and “A Record of the Man Who Ran away from Home” both have lost their eldest daughters to pneumonia. “The Old Man Who Became an Actor” and “Loitering” both star girlfriends named Yun-hui. The “Ballad” tales, of course, constitute a roman cycle. A short story titled “A City of Those Who Have Lost Memories” appears also in “The Blazing Library.”
In the end, the figures in these works can be one another’s past or future or family members even when they seem like strangers. Consequently, what happens to them belongs to them individually and collectively and to us as well. This landscape of resonance passes within and among the stories, finally to expand beyond them. In other words, these tales are reaching out, inviting even us to that sorrowful yet warm landscape. In addition, as if they planned it, nearly all works in this volume end with two characters wholly alone. Such moments are usually dark, desolate, snowy, or cold. Nevertheless, the landscape, which leads to pain, beautifully brims with tears like a faint star that shines with even greater strength in pitch darkness, like breaths that become thicker in bone-freezing cold.
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Changbi Books > Adults, Changbi Books > Adults > Fiction > Collection-short stories
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The Girl Who Ate Dragon Meat
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“How could one know the flavor through a story, without tasting the meat?”
The bold Korean girl Aeng-aeng leaves on a tour for a real taste of the world!
A novel based on the story of Gim Geum-won, who was a woman poet during the latter half of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) renowned for her travel to Mt. Geumgang (Diamond Mountains) at the age of fourteen in a male disguise, The Girl Who Ate Dragon Meat has been published as a volume in the Changbi Young Adult Literature Series. Having produced works targeting diverse age groups, Bak Jeong’ae has created in this work Aeng-aeng, a self-loving and strongly curious girl based on the life of Gim. Embarking on her journey in men’s clothing to overcome the class and gender restrictions imposed on her as the daughter of a gisaeng concubine, Aeng-aeng faces the hitherto unknown real world as she travels, accompanied by the two boys Aeng-du and Un-yeong. Witnessing beautiful scenery and human affairs full of joy, anger, and sadness, Aeng-aeng transcends accounts of the world hitherto available only in writing and comes to establish her own perspectives. The tale of Aeng-aeng, who pursued freedom as much as possible despite all manner of fetters and did not lose her way, conveys to today’s readers tied down by diverse things including grades, advancement to schools on higher levels, and search for employment the following message: experience the world yourself no matter how rough it is, you will gain the strength to affirm yourself and your life by doing so. The eventful trip Mt. Geumgang by Gim Geum-won, a woman poet of the latter half of the Joseon Dynasty and the author of A Record of Chungcheong Province, Gang’won, Pyeong’an, and Hwanghae Provinces and Seoul (Hodongseorak-gi)
Famous in the 19th century as a master poet and a gisaeng (traditional Korean female entertainers akin to the Japanese geisha), Gim led Samho Pavilion Poetry Club (Samho-jeong Sisa), the first women’s poetry society in Korea, and left A Record of Chungcheong Province, Gang’won, Pyeong’an, and Hwanghae Provinces and Seoul, a travelogue about areas including Mt. Geumgang and the Eight Scenic Vies of Eastern Gang’won Province. For this volume, Bak has created Aeng-aeng as Gim’s childhood self and devised new anecdotes not found in A Record of Chungcheong Province, Gang’won, Pyeong’an, and Hwanghae Provinces and Seoul including the reasons for the protagonist’s male disguise during her trip and the personages and incidents that she encounters in the process. Aeng-aeng is strongly discontent with contemporary society, which prevents her from pursuing and expressing her goals and dreams because she is the daughter of a gisaeng concubine, and aspires to go out into the world. Faced with a crossroad of life that presents only two choices—i. e., the concubine of an aristocratic man or a gisaeng—the heroine opts for a third path: she sets out on a journey for a taste of the outside world, which she hitherto has experienced only through books. On her trip, Aeng-aeng encounters the bare face of the world. The first aspect consists of inexpressibly beautiful natural landscapes. Thanks to meticulous and flowing descriptions, the scenery of famous places that Aeng-aeng stops by during her trip including Euirim Reservoir in Jecheon, Eight Scenic Views of Danyang, Mt. Geumgang, and Eight Scenic Views of Eastern Gang’won Province unfolds vividly as if placed before readers’ eyes. Second, Aeng-aeng also faces the injustices of human society, which is in stark contrast to harmonious nature: the tyranny of the nobility (yangban), who work their subordinates like cattle, and the anger of the outcaste (cheonmin), who dream of revenge against such aristocrats. The author has created for this work Aeng-du and Un-yeong, two boys who act in concert with Aeng-aeng, and they, too, are figures who have had to abandon or lose their respective parents due to the class system. Thanks to Aeng-du and Un-yeong, Aeng-aeng’s trip goes beyond simply appreciating the scenery and leisurely composing poems and arrives at an exploration of the real world, or the act of actually “tasting dragon meat.” This world isn’t necessarily weary only
When she sets out on her trip, Aeng-aeng pledges to throw away her life in the most beautiful spot. It is because she thinks that, no matter how much she struggles alone, she cannot shake free of the yokes of class and gender. However, as she finds one new scenic wonder after another, the young girl’s resolution wavers. Although Aeng-aeng ultimately fails to free herself from external limitations, she does not merely resign herself to and accept the reality. Instead, she vows that, even if she must live as the daughter of a gisaeng concubine, looked down on by everyone, she will not lose her innate nature and will shape her life even within the prescribed framework. Because of self-love, Aeng-aeng later christens herself Geum-won, which means a “beautiful silken garden.” Though times are different from the Joseon Dynasty, a plethora of criteria including the educational level, occupation, and appearance divide people from one another even now. As a result, some even despair and abandon themselves, feeling that such standards are insurmountable barriers. This travelogue of the spirited Aeng-aeng, however, will demonstrate to readers today the power of clear self-awareness that squarely faces the given situation yet never gives up. Storyline
Born between an aristocratic father and his gisaeng concubine, Aeng-aeng (later Geum-won) boasts a talent in poetry from an early age. However, after turning fourteen, the girl is faced with a crisis: she must become either the concubine of an aged aristocrat or a gisaeng. Resolving to escape from the cage of class and gender and to see the real world, she dresses as a man and embarks on a journey. In the process, the protagonist wins over Aeng-du, a palanquin bearer, and heads for Mt. Geumgang. The scenes that the two characters encounter in the course including Euirim Reservoir in Jecheon and the Eight Scenic Views of Danyang are breathtaking. However, the trip slowly begins to go awry after Aeng-du draws the blind boy Un-yeong as yet another companion. Though he avowedly has never left his home village, Aeng-du is adept at travel. Un-yeong, on the other hand, possesses a sharp tongue and is uncannily quick-witted. Will Aeng-aeng be able to hide the fact of her male disguise to the end and to finish the trip without ado?
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Changbi Books_YA, Changbi Books > YA > Fiction, Changbi Books_YA > Fiction, Changbi Books > YA
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The Red Shoe Party
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The magic of “bad” fairy tales—you are invited to a dark and dangerous world The Red Shoe Party is a collection of eight short stories inspired by classic folktales. If the fairy tales that we read in childhood conveyed didactic and moralistic lessons and the young adult literature of today sings of hope and affirmation, Gu Byeong-mo’s prose fiction gazes at a chilling reality with sharp problematics. Representative is “The Red Shoe Party,” the title work of this volume. As can be surmised from its title, the story uses Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” as a motif but builds a completely different narrative. The narreme of the fairy tale is found only at the base of this tale, which in turn is propelled by the unique fancy of red shoes that appear in a city bereft of color and the citizens who see them. If red shoes symbolized vanity and pride in Andersen’s fairy tale, they symbolize a sign of change in a totalitarian society, thus leaving room for broad interpretations. “The Tale of the Match Girl” likewise sheds light on the depths of a cruel reality. In “The Little Match Girl,” Andersen covers the horrors of a society where a girl helped by no one is found dead with a beautiful ending where she is reunited with her grandmother in heaven. In Gu’s “The Tale of the Match Girl,” however, the scenery that the girl faces after lighting matches is brutal and tragic. Whose fault, then, is this tragedy? What has gone wrong, and since when? The author presents “bad” fairy tales by uncovering aspects that were erased and hidden from the storytelling of simple and implicit fairy tales, rearranging them with a keen sensibility, and subverting the classical grammar inherent in our memories. Depicting diverse lives expelled outside the boundary of classic fairy tales, this collection of short stories constitutes a proposal that is wary of truths and lessons considered to be firm and that urges us to look at them from different perspectives. In other words, the works gathered here are warnings against aestheticism, arousing leaders to reflections on whether we fail to look back on the agony of reality in the course of solely pursuing what is beautiful and lavish. “I cannot exist in any form other than myself”
People who withstand life in a vast world in their unique ways Almost none of the personages in The Red Shoe Party lead affluent, abundant, and confident lives. Pursuing supporting characters rather than main characters and the periphery rather than the center, the author implies that behind someone’s happy life exist those who decline without receiving any spotlight or applause. This is true of Heinrich the subject in “The Frog Prince; or, Blind Heinrich” and Konrad the gooseherd, who is enamored of a princess in “What the Gooseherd Saw.” Gu neither embellishes nor exalts the abject lives of these supporting characters. Nor does she laugh away aspects of life with momentary jokes. Instead, she tenaciously delves into these personages’ anxiety and accumulated sorrow. In particular, in The Red Shoe Party, which does not star only teenagers as does ordinary prose fiction for young adults, she presents an array of characters who undergo their respective ordeals in diverse temporal and spatial settings, thus evoking in readers an even sharper consciousness of reality. In other words, this is the awareness that, however “rough and violent reality” may be, the important thing is to “touch it fully in one’s hand” (page 108) first, to live here and now. It is also a message that the author has steadily conveyed to readers since Wizard Bakery (published by Changbi), the work with which she made her literary debut. Apparent is a perspective of pity that mournfully gazes at humanity even amidst a nihilistic and pessimistic atmosphere, and transmitted is the message that, for us, hope and courage nevertheless continue to be important. Works bearing diverse metaphors linked to reality While approaching humans’ wounds and fundamental loneliness by mixing the narremes of old tales, the author maintains a perspective critical of current trends through variations based on a contemporary sensibility. Found in her works are diverse metaphors linked to reality today such as a situation where one is punished if one sees colors other than those seen by the majority of people (“The Red Shoe Party”) and a world where only the emperor can appropriate all good and large things (“Caesar’s Turnip”). In particular, as classic fairy tales and folk tales, which traditionally conformed to the patriarchal order, are transformed from a feminist perspective, an even more unique ambience is created in the works in this volume. Awaiting readers are weighty questions projecting from between the lines such as why women can only hold jobs that assist men no matter how talented they may be and why women must live only as someone else’s family members (“Elsie Melts Away”) and why the girl in the work may not touch any power even though she works at a factory that produces power and why only her body must be consumed (“The Tale of the Match Girl”). Though they start by relying on old tales, the stories collected in The Red Shoe Party reflect the changed sensibility of today and achieve in themselves outstanding perfection and literariness. Though this volume can be seen as gathering works most representative of the author, the stories each vibrate with life, as if proclaiming that tales cannot be possessed by anyone—as if ceaseless proliferation and broader resonance were their fate, thus spreading from the past to the present to the future. Consequently, tales do not end; they only become new. As such, the joy of collecting and drinking the sweetest water from the undrying fountain of literature now rests with readers.
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Changbi Books_Adults, Changbi Books_Adults > Fiction, Changbi Books > Adults > Fiction > Novel, Changbi Books_Adults > Novel
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Mr. Living Idly and Studying Goblin
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“What if I could change place with someone who looks just like me?”
A delightful fantasy all children will entertain at least once
An exhilarating story that will have readers roaring with laughter after reading Here are Mr. Living Idly, a human child famous for his love of playing, and Studying Goblin, a goblin child who is famous for his love of reading. As grownups usually do, the adults in the human village chide Mr. Living Idly for doing nothing but have fun, and those in the goblin village Studying Goblin scold him for doing nothing but read books. Bumping into each other in the forest one day after being chased away from their respective homes, the two youngsters come up with a clever trick: they will be able to indulge in their interests without restriction if they switch lives. Witnessing the now changed Mr. Living Idly and Studying Goblin, the grownups in the two villages rejoice and approve unreservedly. A world where you are praised when you only play to your heart’s content…! It is a setting to be longed for by children tired from adults’ nagging. However, will it be possible to enjoy true happiness even if one does what one likes without any limit, even while concealing one’s identity? Going a step from a delightful story that will make readers laugh out loud, Kim Ri-ri hides food for thought in the laughter. A tale of the adventures of two daughters who overcome problems on their own
The story then moves on to the concerns of Let’s Study and Let’s Play, who are the daughters of the now grownup Mr. Living Idly and Studying Goblin, respectively. Mr. Living Idly’s daughter Let’s Study is fond only of studying; Studying Goblin’s daughter Let’s Play only loves to have fun. Though they presumably would understand their respective daughters better than anyone else, these fathers, like other grownups, have many complaints about their girls. Furthermore, Mr. Living Idly and Studying Goblin fear their true identities, hidden for long, will be betrayed by the inclinations of their respective daughters, unusual and different from those of other youngsters in the two villages. Consequently, just like their fathers, Let’s Study and Let’s Play are driven out from their respective homes. Unlike the older generation, who switched lives, however, the two girls make the new choice of leaving together for Puzzling Village, which inhabited by foxes. Will Let’s Study and Let’s Play be able to live happily as they are in the foxes’ village? A fairy tale that gives courage to children and provides grownups with a chance to look back on themselves
Through the goblin village, where one can be praised simply for having fun, Mr. Living Idly and Studying Goblin will present young readers who are exhausted from studying with a sense of liberation. However, that sense of freedom is not the sole strength of this tale. What is more important is that both children and adults will become happy when the former can live according to their natural dispositions—whether for playing or reading—and the latter acknowledge and accept youngsters’ temperaments. Instead of facilely saying that one must study hard and get good grades or that having fun is the best thing, this work encourages children who are tormented about themselves with the priceless words that, to find true happiness, each person must endeavor to love himself and herself as he or she is. In addition, the volume presents subtle satire instead of sharp critique that all problems are due to adults, thus making grownups who read it together with youngsters wince. The simple truth that striving as one is will lead to happiness will leave readers with lasting reverberations even after the book has been closed. Storyline
Mr. Living Idly, famous for his love of having fun, and Studying Goblin, famous for his love of reading, are scolded by grownups in their respective villages. Driven away from their homes one day, these boys bump into each other in the forest. They come up with the clever idea of switching lives, which would then allow them to indulge unlimitedly in their respective interests. Will it be possible for the two children to be happy forever while hiding their identities?
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Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 8-10, Changbi Books, Changbi Books_Children, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Children_Fiction, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction, Changbi Books_Children > Fiction_Age 6-8
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Still Merry
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“Might there be something that doesn’t change forever in this world?”
The question tying the four unique characters together
A collection of stories noteworthy for the charms of a roman cycle Loyal Jo Won-ung, fashionable Choe Jin-sang, and gentle Seo Min-gyu are drawn to Jeong Hui-jae, a transfer student, in spite of themselves. After separately spending time with the girl, who shines like a stag beetle, the trio each receives a skull ring from her. However, what Hui-jae has left them is not only skull rings… To her question—“What doesn’t change forever?”—how will Won-ung, Jin-sang, and Min-gyu answer? Still Merry cheerfully shows the everyday lives of a trio of troublemakers and transfer student Jeong Hui-jae from spring to summer. An established writer, Gim Ok has chosen in this volume the form of a roman cycle, which is effective for looking into the hearts of the characters and closely capturing the growth of each of the children. As a result, readers are allowed a glimpse of the personages’ real intentions, intersection of feelings, and hidden truths, which considerably increase the joy of reading this roman cycle. A crisp sense of humor naturally mingles with the optimistic ambience of the entire work, to which a light touch is given by budding artist Guk Min-ji’s illustrations. The variegated today as lived by thirteen-year-olds—friendship, unrequited love, hobbies, and family
Yet our own private lives are still merry
This book well reflects moments of innocent happiness that are by no means immature and that only childhood can bestow. Readers will find themselves gently smiling at scenes where the protagonists hold a “Class Reunion Ahead of Time” because they may be dead 20 years later and where one of them gets in trouble after lending his elder brother’s guitar to a girl whom he likes. There is something lovable about the shyness and disingenuousness of these boys on the threshold of adolescence, who feign ignorance even though they remember all past incidents. It will be fascinating also to observe how Won-ung, Jin-sang, and Min-gyu constantly and unexpectedly mention and approach Hui-jae in their respective ways while simultaneously professing to one another a lack of interest in her. Though it is not fulfilled in the way that adult romance is, the boys’ still clumsy puppy love is precious in itself. Still Merry thus respects children’s private lives instead of looking down on them. Dependable is the perspective of the author, who, even without conveying words of consolation in particular, quietly affirms and applauds youngsters as they make memories in their own ways. Even for this alone, this book will be very welcome to readers who are struggling through adolescence. Storyline
“Guys to Take Care of before Transferring”: The representative troublemaker at Wajang Primary School, the simple and unruly Jo Won-ung must suddenly transfer to Jeju Island due to his parents’ decision. Because of a bombshell declaration of the prospective transfer, the humdrum routines of the boy and his friends take on incomprehensible excitement and strange energy. In particular, the trio of Won-ung, Jin-sang, and Min-gyu, who have been best friends since kindergarten, make plans for a special week before the transfer… What might the precious memories from the final week that these boys have planned be? “Skull Rings”: Min-gyu secretly has a crush on transfer student Hui-jae. Though he wants to believe that only he is special to the girl, the boy becomes desperate when his best friend Won-ung Jin-sang appears with a skull ring from Hui-jae on his finger. Furthermore, Hui-jae eventually breaks up with Min-gyu due to his clumsy expressions of his feelings… The boy and the girl subsequently bump into each other at a park. What might be the secret that dispels the awkwardness between the two? “Did You See My Guitar?”: A good dancer and a dandy, Jin-sang monopolizes Hui-jae’s attention by boasting his skill as a guitar player. To win her heart, the boy lends the girl his feared elder brother’s guitar while the latter is away for a week. However, the guitar is broken due to Hui-jae’s mistake, thus putting Jin-sang in danger of being scolded by his temporarily absent sibling. The boy’s loyal friends Won-ung and Min-gyu come together to save him from the crisis. Will their great operation to fix the guitar succeed? “Peppy Mom and Me”: Living with her mother only, Hui-jae dreams of studying hard and making Mom happy. One day, she visits an amusement park with her friends thanks to tickets given by her mother. Once the children arrive, however, the girl is greatly perturbed because the place reminds her of her last memories with Dad… Will it be possible for Hui-jae and Mom to recover their vivacity?
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Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 8-10, Changbi Books, Changbi Books_Children, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction, Changbi Books_Children > Fiction_Age 8-10