Materials from Korea
This tender story was first published in a newspaper in 1938. This tale from Korea is universal–a small child waits for Mama at the station, asking the conductor if he has seen her. The conductor hasn’t, but cautions the child to wait a little farther from the tracks. It is cold and snowy but the child waits patiently until finally Mama comes.
This is written in Korean. The English-Korean edition book is also available.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 2 of WOW Review.
Gently explore the special bond between children and their pets. A shy little girl and her very independent cat, play, hide, and comfort one another. Both children and parents will appreciate how the cat soothes the little girl and silently encourages her to explore the bigger world and experience new things.
In this wordless book, Suzy Lee tells the story of a little girl’s day at the beach.
This tender story was first published in a newspaper in 1938. This tale from Korea is universal–a small child waits for Mama at the station, asking the conductor if he has seen her. The conductor hasn’t, but cautions the child to wait a little farther from the tracks. It is cold and snowy but the child waits patiently until finally Mama comes.
It is an English-Korean bilingual picture book. The Korean edition book is also available.
Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul are proud of their Korean heritage. Yet they live their lives under Japanese occupation. All students must read and write in Japanese and no one can fly the Korean flag. Hardest of all is when the Japanese Emperor forces all Koreans to take Japanese names. Sun-hee and Tae-yul become Keoko and Nobuo. Korea is torn apart by their Japanese invaders during World War II. Everyone must help with war preparations, but it doesn’t mean they are willing to defend Japan. Tae-yul is about to risk his life to help his family, while Sun-hee stays home guarding life-and-death secrets.
Jane Addams Honor Book
Featured in Volume I, Issue 1 of WOW Review.
This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
A little girl doesn’t like her dinner and is sent to her room. She seeks comfort from her friend Bear and falls asleep. So begins a fantastic dream voyage deep into the forest, where the girl and her friend dance and play all night. And in the morning, mother and child make up. With brilliant linocut illustrations and not a single word, this picture book marks an impressive American debut for Hyewon Yum.
These vividly told tales of plantation life from decades past center around the lives of Marita Kim and her four younger brothers and sisters. The children experience many hardships growing up poor and motherless in a Korean camp in Hawaii, but their stories are full of adventure. In “Joe and the White Dog,” Joe takes Little Sister exploring and loses her… until a mysterious white-haired woman and her friendly dog appear to help. In “The Little People,” fearless six-year-old Puni searches for menehune to grant her wish for a new doll. The stories also provide a poignant look at the family’s daily struggles. In “Plantation Child” we see, through the eyes of Marita, the sacrifices made to pay for a pair of new shoes, the need for thrift and hard work to make ends meet. In “The Pineapple Cannery” we share in Marita’s excitement as she begins a new life working in Honolulu. The last story, “Abuji,” is a tender portrait of the long-widowed father, reminiscing about his youth and his return journey to Korea. Moving from child to child, from story to story, Eve Begley Kiehm brings to life a formative period in the history of Korean Americans in Hawaii.
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?