- Overview
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Heart Bus is a picture book about how a missing letter on a bus inspired the neighbors’ warm communication.
- Book Intro
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(English) Heart Bus
* Plot *
The letter “L” has disappeared from the maeul (village) bus. To replace the missing letter, the driver hung an M-shaped wooden clothes hanger. The passengers on the bus see one another every day, but they only look out of the window without speaking to each other. To prevent the clothes hanger from rattling and falling off, the driver has to drive the bus slowly. Then the passengers complain that the bus is going too slow. The driver tells them the story of the missing “L.” Suddenly, the people on the bus start to chat. Will the ride on the maeum (heart) bus end well?
* Intentions *
1. How to share your heart with your neighbors
The maeul (village) bus always runs the same route. It goes through alleys that big buses can’t go through. On the maeul (village) bus, you can meet people you’ve seen before in your neighborhood. But you can’t call them your neighbors; they are just people living in the same village. This book illustrates that you can be a real neighbor when you share your heart with others. Why don’t you give a friendly greeting to the people you often bump into, like the scent of flowers permeating through the open bus window? Just like the boy with short-cropped hair reads, “Our hearts bloomed, too.”
2. Neighbors, people who get along with others
In order to learn the alphabet, the Moon Bear family took away the letter “L” from the bus sign, creating a maeum (heart) bus. Why would the Moon Bears want to study to read?
The writer brings the Moon Bear family, who live in the forest, into the story to help us realize that our neighbors are not just humans. Many animals live in harmony with humans. The Moon Bear family represents those animals.
The Moon Bear family probably wants to learn the alphabet so that they can communicate with humans. How should we treat the Moon Bears, who wish to become our neighbors? We should extend the concept of neighbor to include them.
3. The pictures that open the closed heart
A lot of squares appear in this picture book. Each character is trapped in an enclosed frame, which represents their disconnectedness with their neighbors. In the blocked space, you cannot hear other people and your story cannot be heard.
However, each frame dissolves and people communicate in one place as soon as people get on the maeum (heart) bus. When people get off the bus, the boy steps over a large square-shaped frame. Now we can expect people to open up a little more and listen carefully to their neighbors.
- About the Author
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Kim Yu
(English) She is the recipient of the best award from the 17th Children’s Book Contest by Changbi Publishers. She writes at her writing studio called Mary Eungyu which is located at a seaside village. Her children’s books include Heartful Bus, My Name IS Gugu Sneakers, Wimpy Manbo, Unbeatable Malsuk, My Dog Chomps Down Ramyeon, Great Nostrils, The Family of No-No Reading and the Cooking Books Shop, The Big-Ear Rabbit’s Counseling Center, I Have a Family, and Zipper Bag Boy. She also wrote a non-fiction book titled Lee Jungseob.
Sobogi
(English) “I wish that there were a village where a heart could stay and that I would like to live there for long.”
Lee Hyunjoo has illustrated for such books as Worries about Him, Logging-into School Today Again, On Board the Yellow Submarine, March from Selma and has written picture books such as Don’t Put Yourself Out but Solve Anyway 1 & 2, The Boy’s Mind, Children’s Poetry-Weltoon: Both of Us Together, Nothing Will Be Impossible, Nine Zero Nine Counseling Center, How to Draw Anime, Why Are You Crying?, Not Mommy But Auntie Tells a Story.
(Chinese) “想在一个村子里得到心灵的休息，并在此长久的生活下去。”
画的绘本有《那小子的担心》， 《今天也往学校- LOGIN》， 《坐上黄黄的舰艇》 《塞尔玛大游行》； 创作的绘本有《的心 诗+ Webtoon：我们两个就不成问题》， 《九百九咨询所》， 《画漫画的方法》， 《为什么哭？》， 《不是妈妈而是姨妈说给听的故事》等。
(Japanese) 漫画家、イラストレーターとして活動しながら、ユニークで深みのある絵に人文科学的感性を加えて作品を作っている。著書に『少年の心』、『がんばらないで、とにかく解決1、2』、『909相談所』、『子どもの心詩トゥーン、二人なら問題ない』、『205相談所』、『第二の秘訣』などがあり、絵を描いた本に『我が家の水泥棒を捕まえろ』、『人権も難民も平和も環境もNGOが駆けつけ解決してあげる』などがある。
(Indonesian) Penulis adalah seorang kartunis yang sekaligus ingin menggambar kartun seperti menulis puisi. Ia mempelajari sejarah di perguruan tinggi. Saat ini aktif sebagai kartunis dan ilustrator. Publikasi kartunya terdapat pada majalah anak-anak 『Ikan Paus yang Melakukannya』, kelompok aktivis lingkungan "Green Union," dll. Buku-buku yang Ia buat antara lain, 『Hati Anak Laki-Laki』, 『Jangan Coba-coba Tapi Tetap Selesaikan 1, 2』, 『Pusat Konseling 909』, 『Puisi-Kartun Pikiran Anak - Tidak Masalah Jika Kita Berdua』, 『Metode Rahasia Kedua』 dan buku yang Ia gambar antara lain, 『Tangkap Pencuri Air Dirumahku』, 『HAM, Imigran, Perdamaian, dan Lingkungan, NGO Memecahkan Semua Masalah Tersebut』, dll
