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The Horizon School

The story of a boy’s dramatic adventures on a sea trip The Horizon School is a children’s novel that recounts the sea adventures that Jang Bog-o experiences after becoming a crew member on the Korina, a sailing ship. A 5th grader in primary school who lives in Wanjin, a port city on South Korea’s East Coast, the protagonist boards the Korina, thinking that he will sightsee the South Korean islands of Dokdo. Contrary to his expectations, however, the vessel comes to take part in a competition against Russian, Chinese, and Japanese ships in sailing around Dokdo and returning. In comparison with ships representing other countries, the Korina is small and old. Nevertheless, figures including the vessel’s captain Gang Cheol-seon, representative of the South Korean yachting team Gang Sak-gu, aged chief engineer, and Dutchman van Loom do their utmost to win the sailing contest. This is because of not only the pride of representing the nation but also the tremendous penalty that will be imposed on the defeated team. Dumbfounded at first, Bog-o, too, lends a hand in unfurling the heavy sails, scurries about running errands, and undergoes dangerous situations together, holding out against raging waves and rough winds in the pitch-dark night. The hero’s adventures come to a climax when he and the crew encounter a North Korean fishing boat distressed amidst a typhoon. The protagonist’s adventures at sea will be refreshing and moving to young readers who are trapped in their daily lives.

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 10-13, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
The Mouse Who Did a Great Thing

Plucky little mouse Sae-ang’s lovable adventures The youngest member of the mouse family, Sae-ang sets out after her elder sister and brother, only and inadvertently to leave a piece of dung in a stray cat’s food bowl. Faced with the feline, who seeks to teach the fearless rodent a lesson for having coveted his bowl of food, the protagonist boldly counters with wit instead so that the two creatures become buddies. Having thus befriended a cat and become the “Mouse Who Did a Great Thing,” the heroine humbles the brassy and boastful squirrel Da-ram and is presented with a spacious home by the mole Du-rung for having given her a splendid name. Equipped with natural wisdom and courage though neither beautiful nor strong, Sae-ang devises a new plan with her friends to help the cat, who has been driven out from the shelter because of a raccoon dog. Will their ploy succeed…?

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 8-10, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
Extremely Introverted

After we read works by Choi Jung-hwa, our tranquil daily life starts to shake slightly. Possessing sensitive sensibilities, the protagonists of her tales all are tormented because they are unable to govern their angst-ridden minds and to mitigate ruptured relationships. They are endlessly absorbed in a single idea that seems insignificant at times and go to extremes due to their inability to mend relational discord whose causes are mysterious at other times. The characters in this collection “are beings who slightly discomfort others due to their sense of inferiority, guilt, or persecution” (commentary by Gang Gyeong-seok): the mistress of a home who feels threatened by a woman who has arrived for an interview as a potential housekeeper (“Shoes”); a wife who, though she is ceaselessly anxious about her circumstances and so learns and indulges in new things, still has nightmares (“Organic Cotton Babe”); a woman who has come to disregard her husband who, perfection itself at one time, now wears dentures after losing six of his incisors in an accident (“False Teeth”); a man who is constantly worried that his contractual “marriage” to a woman will be uncovered by his friends and his “wife,” who seeks to avoid such situations with artful lies to deflect suspicions (“Hongro Apples”); a father who is deeply troubled by his pregnant teen daughter (“Tattoo”); a wife who struggles to read a book by Martin Heidegger originally purchased as an interior decoration (“The Blue Book”); and a timid man who, troubled by a neighbor living in cramped housing, devises all kinds of plans to change the latter’s home (“The House Is Getting Bigger”). Nevertheless, all such behavior provides glimpses of images that are somehow similar to us or aspects of ourselves that no one else knows. The author has an inherent gift for hearing and feeling what is sharp. The “sharp sounds of friction that echo as the heels of the shoes, all worn down, strike the tiles on the floor of the entryway” (“Shoes,” p. 9) arouse a sense of foreboding. The frustrations of the latter half of life and a lonely and wearisome future can be read from a former colleague who “choos[es] an outrageously overpriced gift set” (“Bald Head,” p. 189). Choi’s outstanding ability to capture with her acute senses the diverse stories behind a single object or incident and, going beyond them, even the angst of our times dominates her works and prompts us “not to sink into individual anxiety but to face the anxiety of the world” (reviewers’ commentary). The source of the title of this volume and an account of the relationship between a novelist who rents a country house and writes during the summer and Mi-ok, her landlord, “The Case of an Extremely Introverted Murder” is a work where timid and “introverted” figures’ psychology is maximized. In the process through

Changbi Books > Adults, Changbi Books > Adults > Fiction > Collection-short stories
The Guardian against the Blue Wolves

A work that will amply meet the high expectations for recipients of the Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction, which have begun to win hearts and minds beyond South Korea and around the globe, this volume addresses the historical fact of Japanese military sexual slavery (so-called “comfort women,” or girls and women from imperial Japan’s colonies and occupied areas who were mobilized, mostly through coercion and employment fraud, for sexual enslavement by the nation’s armed forces both before and during World War II) in depth yet also harbors literary tension and entertainment value that will engross teenagers. Presenting readers with the pleasure of looking into history through literature, the novel will be remembered as a refreshing achievement in South Korean literature for young adults. There are two settings to this work: Seoul today, in 2016, and Seoul in the 1940s, during the Japanese colonial era (1910-45). With its tight structure that travels between the present and the past, the novel will present readers with a gripping tension. A 16-year-old boy who lives with his mother, O Haet-gwi visits the home of a solitary senior citizen. Named Hyeon Su-in, the elderly lady at one time made her friends happy with her clear singing voice and dreamed of becoming the foremost singer in Korea but is now bedridden all the time, ill and weary. What might she have gone through? Seeing Miss Hyeon moan in pain whenever she recalls her past, Haet-gwi becomes curious about her secret. The boy subsequently discovers by chance a clock that winds backwards, only to be sucked into it and to find himself in Seoul of the 1940s. There, he encounters the teenaged Su-in and Haruko, the daughter of the Japanese family for whom the former works as a kitchen maid. The protagonist then is squarely faced with the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery, an indelible scar in Korean history: the nightmarish fate will soon befall Su-in herself. Will Haet-gwi’s desperate wish to save the girl across the boundary of time indeed come true?

Changbi Books > YA > Fiction, Changbi Books > YA
I Ran Like the Wind

Kim Nam-jung calmly but humorously depicts the ways in which the protagonist, a young boy, makes memories as he rides his bicycle. Besotted with his two-wheeler, the hero at one time has his bike stolen and hurts his elbows and knees after falling while speeding. Nevertheless, his love for the bicycle continues unabated. Exhilarated whenever he sees wheels, the protagonist vigorously pedals on until his thighs hurt. He rushes down slopes against crosswinds at unstoppable speeds and is undaunted even by bumpy gravel paths. The boy fosters his dreams, has first inklings of the strange emotion of love, and bonds with his friends as he rides his bike. The thirteen tales related to the two-wheeler including “Min-gyeong the Iron Legs,” which is about taking part in a grand bike trip, “A Bicycle for Two,” which is about riding with the girl whom the hero likes, and “The Big Fishing Adventure,” which is about the protagonist and his friends going to catch fish, combine to form a single story while retaining their individual flavors and themes—a demonstration of the author’s outstanding craftsmanship.

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 10-13, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
Ahmose the King of Thieves

Ahmose the King of Thieves unfolds against the backdrop of Egypt in the 14th century BC. In the course of following the adventures of the protagonist and his friends, readers will come to have a sense of ancient Egypt, which constructed an immense civilization through pharaohs’ mausoleums and murals of the afterlife. As Ahmose and his friends meander through alleys in search of the Eye of Horus, we are presented with a glimpse of the lives of ordinary people as well. Through meticulous research, Jo Seung-yeon realistically portrays not only the kings’ tombs and the scenery along the Nile River but also details such as the personages’ hairstyles and clothing, thus bringing to life Egypt no fewer than 3,400 years ago. The writer not only perfectly recreates unfamiliar time and space but also stars vivacious characters including the very likable hero, thus turning Ahmose the King of Thieves not into a monotonous story of history but into a tale that is immediate, as if it were taking place before our eyes. The depiction of ancient Egypt in this volume feels realistic thanks in no small part to the drawings. The illustrator not only portrays contemporary customs in great detail but also vividly conveys the atmosphere of ancient Egypt with colors that are reminiscent of Egyptian murals. Youngsters who read this volume are sure to embark on an exciting time trip along with a realistic setting, a vivid story, and unique pictures. Ahmose is a boy famed as the foremost thief in Egypt. However, he is wrongly accused of having stolen the Eye of Horus, a piece of jewelry necessary for pharaoh Tutankhamun’s funeral, and pursued. To clear his name, the protagonist sets out to find the treasure together with the twin brothers Ipo and Ipy, Miu the monkey, and the mysterious animal Sphinx. During the search for the Eye of Horus, Ahmose discovers a link between the great conspiracy surrounding the theft and his parents’ deaths. To clear himself of the unjust charge and to shed light on the truth of his parents’ deaths, the boy decides to stand up against those who hatched the plot. Despite a life-threatening crisis, he does not give up and moves closer to the truth, step by step. Will Ahmose find the Eye of Horus indeed? Will he uncover the great scheme?

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 10-13, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
I’m Caterpillar No.7 in 3rd Graders’ Homeroom No.2

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?

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 6-8, Changbi Books > Children, Changbi Books > Children > Fiction
The Umbrella Library

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?

Changbi Books > Children > Fiction > Age 8-10, Changbi Books > Children
Yeong-hui Nextdoor

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.

Changbi Books > YA > Fiction, Changbi Books > YA
The Man Runs Away From Home

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.

Changbi Books > Adults, Changbi Books > Adults > Fiction > Collection-short stories

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