A well-illustrated kids’ book featuring South Korean icons.
In Glover, Kent, Suwalsky, and Yuleui Lee’s illustrated children’s book, a band of South Korean stone figures underestimate their influence.
In Seoul, the capital of South Korea, the japsang are the stone figures that line the rooftops of the royal palaces as protectors for centuries. Once considered heroes, the japsang are beginning to feel forgotten and unappreciated. They include The Rev, Monkey King, Pig Monster, Water Demon, and Pangolin. At night, they escape the palace to go to the Shadow Club, where they play in a band they call the Rooftop Revelers, hiding their faces so they won’t be recognized. One night, the Rooftop Revelers entertain clubgoers until sunrise. They realize they can’t go home in broad daylight, and they’ve been invited to play again that night for Ms. Park, head of the country’s biggest record company. So, the japsang sleep through the day at the club and awaken to unexpected news: “Everyone gathered around the newspaper. ‘Whaaaat? We’ve been stolen?’ asked Pangolin. ‘No!’ said Water Demon. ‘No one stole us. We’re here…but everyone thinks we’ve been stolen because we’re not there on the palace roof!’” After their show, Ms. Park offers the band a lucrative record deal, but the japsang agree that they can’t abandon their important work. Sangin Lee’s cartoon illustrations transform the stone figures into colorful, absurdist flying creatures. Sporadic thought-bubbles pop up, revealing the characters’ imaginations and dreams. The spirited prose is dotted with Korean vocabulary, while the story subtly reveals many aspects of Korean culture, intermingling the traditional and the modern. The often humorous dialogue brings out each character’s individuality. Pangolin, for example, is always hungry, and for him, it’s always snack time—even en route to the Shadow Club: “You can’t grab a snack out of every onggi pot!” says Water Demon: “ ‘I can try,’ mumbled Pangolin, his mouth full of kimchi.” The book ends with an illustrated glossary of Korean terms. This tale offers Korean children a fun, educational connection to their culture, but it also offers a wonderful opportunity to broaden any youngster’s cultural literacy.
A well-illustrated kids’ book featuring South Korean icons.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9791189809713
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Seoul Selection
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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