Materials from Korea
Korean Children’s Favorite Stories is a captivating collection of Korean folk tales that have thrived for generations. Some are unique to Korea, while others echo those told in other countries. Written with wit and pathos, they reveal the follies of people everywhere and expose the human-like qualities of animals and the animal-like qualities of humans.
Bee-bim bop is a traditional Korean dish of rice mixed with meat and vegetables. In bouncy rhyming text, a hungry child tells about helping her mother make bee-bim bop: shopping, preparing ingredients, setting the table, and finally sitting down with her family to enjoy a favorite meal. The energy and enthusiasm of the young narrator are conveyed in the whimsical illustrations, which bring details from the artist’s childhood in Korea to his depiction of a modern Korean American family.
A mama duck with a dozen eggs has to do a lot of counting! Mama counts her ducklings one by one as they hatch, but soon she finds clever new ways to count to twelve–by twos, threes, fours, and sixes! But how many ducklings will it take to trick the hungry wolf who is counting on them for lunch?
On the first day of kindergarten, a teacher asks the boys and girls to line up, and Yoon lines up with the other girls. But when some children mistake Yoon for a boy because of her short hair, Yoon bursts into tears. At home, Yoon finds a solution. Her sister s special headband is perfect! When she wears it to kindergarten, no one teases or mistakes her for anything but who she is! Yoon has a lovely time with her new friends.But Yoon’s sister has been missing her special headband so when Yoon has to go back to school without it, she s worried all over again. Thankfully, her friends like Yoon exactly the way she is.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 4, Issue 1
Twelve-year-old Kevin Kim helps Chu-mong, a legendary king of ancient Korea, return to his own time.
Jade Blossom can never go beyond her family’s Inner court. Every girl from a good family in seventeenth-century Korea must stay at home and learn to sew and work in the kitchen to prepare her for her future life in her husband’s Inner Court. Jade has other interests. She longs to take trips to the mountains and the marketplace. Jade won’t stop thinking about the world beyond the high walls of her home.
Jennifer, a Korean American, is worried that her grandmother, visiting from Korea, will embarrass her on her school’s Grandparents’ Day, but the event brings her understanding and acceptance.
In 1945, 10-year-old Sookan’s homeland of North Korea is occupied by the Japanese. Sookan watches her people–forced to renounce their native ways–become increasingly angry and humiliated. When war’s end brings only a new type of domination–from the Russian communists.
When someone leaves the patio door unlocked it’s just the opportunity the family’s pet rabbit needs to go exploring.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 3 of WOW Review.
The Korean town where Yangsook lives is famous for wonderful peaches, but one year a heavy rainstorm ushers the farmers’ crop down the mountain where children eagerly eat the expensive treat.
Take a closer look at Peach Heaven as examined in WOW Review.