- Overview
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- Book Intro
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There are two friends living in a small town where the big river flow through. New-new lives in this side of the river and Wan lives in the opposite side of the river. This small town is full of rumor that the father of Wan is a fraudster. Therefore, Wan is always a loner and always carries a red gourd bottle which is a lifesaver tube to children in the town. New-new cannot swim at all, so the big river is the place where she can never go inside. However, Wan steals New-new’s attention by showing up his swimming skills in the river. The hot summer comes around these two friends who feel awkward to each other, and the summer becomes a wonderful background of the story with its temperature, light and sound. The red dots seen between the black brush touch of ink stick and the white paper are the red gourd bottle of Wan and its function is actually a lifesaver tube, but also it is the memory of the summer and the symbol of growth. Wan gets a new friend thanks to his red gourd bottle, and New-new finally learns how to cross the river on her own only after she puts down the gourd bottle. The writer uses the brush touch and the light and shade of ink stick to express complicated emotions of pleasure, joy, selfishness, regret and sorry of two main characters during the summer. And the writer shows the warmness of the nature embracing two friends through 29 pages. The writer, Cao Wen Xuan, is very good at telling a youth story with the background of embracing nature, and the illustrator, Kim Se Hyun, sees the characters from a far distance.
- About the Author
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Cao Wenxuan
Kim Sehyun
Kim Sehyun was born in 1963 in Yeongi in the South Chungcheong province of South Korea and raised in Daejeon. Kim majored in Oriental Painting in college. In 2004, Kim won the 4th Publication Art Award. In 2009, Kim was selected as an exhibition painting illustrator of the guest-country of honor. Books illustrated by Kim Sehyun include Same Shirts, Strong Bhusoong, The Isolated House in the Isolated area, Fish Bone, Mama Pheasant, Memories of Chung-Gu Hoe, Jongmyo Shrine where People Meet God, The Story of the Grateful Pheasants, The Island of Flowers, The Flower-Shaded Lake, Princess Pyeong-gang and Ondal the Stupid, A Badger and a Flea, The Camellias, and I Won't Go Out Even if the King Calls Me.
