- Overview
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It's been three years since the five family members started living apart. A loving picture book that talks about feelings deep inside and a sequel to the Three Balloons.
- Book Intro
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A divorce separates a family of five. The mother lives with the oldest and youngest daughters, and the father lives with the middle daughter. They are seemingly at peace, yet there is an unseen struggle. The second daughter, the narrator of this story, compares her experience of facing unfamiliar surroundings to standing alone atop a jungle gym on the first day at a new school. Being told that her parents are going to live separately is likened to confronting the horror of standing alone on the tongue of a giant monster. The story consoles its readers by depicting fear, sorrow, and heartache from parting, hidden behind the ordinary exteriors of life. Affirming that it is okay to feel hurt and sad, the book focuses on the feelings of the second child, who is still hurting inside. Only after being pricked by a cactus does the child confront her feelings, which themselves have suffered cuts and scrapes. Soon afterwards, when her father forgets not only to pack a lunch for her school trip, but that it is the actual day of the trip, she realizes again that the drawers in her heart are too jam-packed to put anything else in. It is simultaneously painful and compelling to watch a child who has been hurt by adults' choices end up finding her own solutions. The child in the story sends letters and postcards containing her honest feelings and thoughts to her parents: "Mom, Dad, why didn't you tell me earlier that we were going to live apart as two families? ... I should have at least pestered you to let me live with Mom and my sisters."
Being able to express discomfort and anger in your own way seems advisable because it is not always virtuous to be considerate of other's feeling, suppressing your own. After emptying the drawer of your heart, that has become filled with conflict and hurt, some other unpleasant feelings might rush in. But once you face your inner feelings and find new energy and alternatives, it will be easier to empty the second and third drawers in your mind, or even to remove stuff in advance before the drawers get full—just like the child in this story, who gets her hurt and sadness off her chest, closes the distance with her father, and eventually recovers her daily life.
- About the Author
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Kim Yangmi
(Japanese) 1967年ソウルで生まれ、大学で国文学を勉強した。2000年短編童話<カタクチイワシ>を発表して作品活動をはじめ、2006年《ちんちん君とドゥパンドゥ》で第2回マヘソン文学賞を受賞した。書いて描いた絵本《風船三つ》、《風船五つ》をはじめ、童話《兄と私》、《毛束》、《夏と秋》、《別また三銃士》などを書いた。
Born in Seoul in 1967, the author Yangmi Kim studied literature in college. She debuted with a children's story Anchovy in 2000, and later received the 2006 Ma Haesong Literary Award for Jjinjjingun and Dubbangdu. She is the author and illustrator of a number of picture books, including Three Balloons and Five Balloons; and the author of children's stories including My Brother and I; Fur Ball; Summer and Autumn; and The Trio: Alone and Together.