- Overview
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A collection of poetry for children focusing on the little things we tend to overlook in life, reassuring them they are, indeed, pretty.
- Book Intro
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Stepping Stone Connecting the Neglected Things of the World
The poet Lee Sang-gyo has spent the last forty years expressing her affection for the small, pitiful things in life. In this collection, she turns once more to overlooked children and animals and things, reassuring them that they are, indeed, pretty as well.
The poet is always focused on the small, sometimes pathetic things that are overlooked by most people. For example, the droppings of a bird. She regards a single grass seed with great intensity. To such a seed, bird droppings are nutrients. The poet changes the droppings into “lunch” for the blade of grass, bringing to light a new value within something as lowly as bird droppings. Big or small, her children’s poetry brings us into the warmth of a child’s gaze. Thanks to this, things that are so small one has to crouch and squint to see them can be reconnected to the outside world.
Lee Sang-gyo’s worldview holds no space for discrimination or authority as she anthropomorphizes animals and things and emphasizes their situations. This attitude and her fairy-tale-like imagination allow us to understand nature, and shows us how only by living in harmony with the little things can we stop worrying so much and live our lives in happiness.
- About the Author
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Lee Sang-Kyo
(English) A children’s poem written by Lee Sang-Kyo was recommended in a magazine Boy in 1973. Another of Lee's poems won the annual spring literary contest by Chosun Ilbo in 1974, and Lee's story for children won the annual spring literary contest by Dong-a Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo in 1977. Lee Sang-Kyo won the Sejong Children’s Literary Award and Korea Publication Literature Award. Lee served as a president of the Korean Children’s Poem Literature Association and asa vice president of the Korean Children’s Literature Association. Picture books written by Lee Sang-Kyo include When My Mom Goes to the Island to Pick Oysters, A Goblin and a Pudding Salesman, and I Am a Wandering Dog. Children’s poem collections created by Lee include Plop Plop, Crossing the Night, Dust, Are You Asleep?, and The Flower Laughs and the Wind Blows, MILLET SEED MAN OH BYOUNG SU, THE CAT INSTEAD OF ME. Stories for children made by Author Lee include Daengi Ddaengi and MY FIRST PRIZE CERTIFICATE. TELL ME I’M PRETTY was an IBBY Honors List book.
(French) Dong-si et Dong-hwa sont élues aux Arts littéraires du nouveau printemps du Dong-A Ilbo et du Chosun Ilbo et commencent à travailler comme écrivains. Elle a remporté le prix de littérature des contes de fées de Corée, le prix de la littérature pour enfants Haegang et le prix de la littérature pour enfants Sejong. Elle a notamment écrit Docteur en rollers, lapin de service et très petite maison.
(Russian) Газеты 'Донг-А Ильбо' и 'Чосон Ильбо' признали его работы лучшими в области детской литературы, и так он начал работу писателем. Выиграл премию Лучшая корейская сказка, премию за детскую литературу Хэган и премию за детскую литературу Седжон. Среди его работ 'Доктор на роликах', 'Дежурный кролик' и 'Очень маленький дом'.
Heo Gu
(English) The illustrator Heo Gu studied fine arts at college. He worked in the advertisement and public relations areas before he began to draw unique and humorous pictures for children’s books. He has illustrated many children’s books such as Willow Warbler and Pine Tree, What Is the Temperature of My Heart?, The First Certificate of Award That I Have Ever Received, Mimi’s Diary, Manghil’s Spring, Uncle Younggu, Golden Toad’s First Class, Siwoo’s Face Turned Red, I Would Like to Become a Fox, Dr. Saury Pike, Please Help!, Foolish Mr. Doodeok and the King of Bandit, A Talking Black Pebble, and A Mustard Seed’s Dream.
- Award
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Included in national elementary school textbooks. 2016 IBBY Honors List awardee.
- Selection
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Seijong Books Sharing Literature selection, Open Kid Good Children's Book selection, 2015 Children's Book Center selection
