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| Review |
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Vol.6 Winter 2009
(Page 68) |
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< Children's Books >
Up Comes the Round Sun |
 By Kim Ji-eun |
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For a Boy
Battling Disease
Up Comes the Round Sun
Chang Kyeong-hue, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2009, 400p
ISBN 978-89-546-0819-0
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Heads or tails, a coin is a coin. No coin has
two sides exactly the same. When placed
on a palm, only one side of a coin can be
seen. You can always turn it over, but not
many people bother. They are too busy
counting the coins to worry about heads or tails. Heads and tails are, in fact, different,
but the two have exactly the same value.
The price of an object does not change
according to heads or tails. Still, the two
sides of a coin is an analogy that shows how
there can be different shapes with the same
value.
This work lets us see both sides of the
coin. It is a masterpiece that truly shows
us how both sides have the same value.
The book takes its title and text from the
children’s song “Up Comes the Round
Sun,” the very first song that children in
Korea learn when they go to kindergarten
or elementary school. Going something
like, “Up comes the round sun, up from his
bed…Wash your face nice and clean, we’re
brushed and combed, we’re all ready…
Say goodbye and let’s go,” the song ends
cheerfully with the children merrily going
to kindergarten. It encourages children
to get ready for school in the morning by
themselves.
The prosaic tune takes on eyepopping
dimensions coupled with the
author’s illustrations. At the beginning it is
morning, but the room is still dark. A lone
bulb hanging from the ceiling illuminates
the cramped room. Outside, the round sun
is already up in the sky. The protagonist
Jin-woo is poor and lives in a basement
room, so morning there is a little different
from other houses. But Jin-woo yawns
just the same as other children and wants
to snuggle into the blankets instead of
getting up, the same as everyone else. The
juxtaposition of sameness and difference
continues.
Jin-woo cannot brush his teeth or wash
his face by himself. His mother has to do
it for him. The other children pictured
on the right, however, wash and brush by
themselves. Not like Jin-woo. The look of
excitement on their faces at the prospect of
going out is just the same, though.
The author never says why Jinwoo
is different. Sharp readers may have
caught on, but only at the last scene is our
curiosity solved in a few lines. Jin-woo has
a muscular disease that forces him to spend
most of his time at home, in bed.
The author uses yellow as bright
as the sun to depict Jin-woo’s life.
She also says that she dedicates
this book to “Someone out there
battling the unthinkable, but who
still knows how to smile.” At the
end of the book the reader now
understands how Jin-woo spends
his day battling his disease. We also
realize that he has the same goals as
us, that his life means just as much,
and that his passion for life may be
even greater. |
He may not be able to
go to kindergarten, but his glowing
face says it all as he sits in a field of
sunflowers with his mother, gazing at
the sun.
This is the Grand Prize winner of
the 9th Seoul Children’s Illustration
Competition, an annual competition
that has run from 1999 to 2009. The
author captivated the discerning eyes of
a panel that awarded only three Grand
Prizes in 10 years. Looking at the pictures
of Jin-woo, you cannot help but smile
with him. You feel like you are holding his
hand; the pictures are that alive. The book’s
daringly juxtaposes paradoxical illustrations
and text, and its wholesome depiction of
character, show that this is one newcomer
to watch out for. |
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