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Poetry Friday: Tap Dancing on the Roof by Linda Sue Park

Aug2

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to continue to visit Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

POCKETS

What’s in your pockets right now? I hope they’re not empty:
Empty pockets, unread books, lunches left on the bus–all a waste.
In mine: One horse chestnut. One gum wrapper. One dime. One hamster.

Linda Sue Park’s poem, POCKETS, is an example of a Korean sijo (see-szo or she-szo, with the j pronounced as the French pronounce Jacques), a three or six line poem with a fixed number of stressed syllables and an unexpected twist or joke at the end. Tap Dancing on the Roof is a book of sijo. These deceptively simple poems are a delight, but after reading over the end page, “Some Tips for Writing your own Sijo”, I am even more impressed with the difficulty inherent in writing a “simple” poem. Making it look easy isn’t easy.

Sijo were originally meant to be sung, and the songs “often praised the beauty of the seasons.” Yes, they’re similar to haiku, but whereas haiku are usually nature poems, sijo are about all kinds of subjects. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sijo were written by women who were court singers. These sijo were often about love and romance. The poems in Tap Dancing on the Roof are about kid stuff nature, games, daily tasks, and family relationships.

I thought I might try writing my own sijo for this review, but after I read the poems in Tap Dancing on the Roof and thought about it some more, I decided that I’m not that talented as a poet. So here’s a poem I liked from the Sejong Cultural Society website:

The spring breeze melted snow on the hills, then quickly disappeared.
I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair
and melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.
춘산(春山)에 눈 녹인 바람 건듯 불고 간듸업네
저근듯 비러다가 뿌리과저 머리우희
귀밋헤 해묵은 서리를 불녀볼까 하노라
U-Taek (1262-1342)

My Name Is Yoon by Helen Recorvits

Jul30

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

“I write my name in English now. It still means Shining Wisdom.”

Yoon, newly arrived in the United States with her family from Korea, doesn’t want to write her name in English letters with all their circles and lines and sharp cornersand lack of continuity. She wants her name to be written in Korean: “My name looks happy in Korean. The symbols dance together.”

'RSDigby_1628' photo (c) 2009, Robert S. Digby - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

She’s right. The Korean hangul do lend themselves to artistry, don’t they?

I think the take-away from this story of a Korean girl finding her place in a new country and culture is that we do give up some things when we cross cultures. Yoon learns to write her name in English. But she still knows that it means “Shining Wisdom”, and she still keeps her attachment to words and the way they sound and look. Yoon is something of a poet as she tries on the new English words to see how they fit her.

We give up some things and gain others. Yoon makes new friends, and she learns to understand her new teacher who smiles at her in the end.

Helen Recorvits and Gabi Swiatkowska have collaborated on two other books about Yoon: Yoon and the Christmas Mitten and Yoon and the Jade Bracelet. On the basis of this first book, the other two would be worth seeking out.

Minji’s Salon by Eun-hee Choung

Jul29

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to continue to visit Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

As Minji plays hairdresser with her pet dog as the subject of hair-styling efforts, things get a little messy. This one reminded me of The Cat in the Hat, or even better, one of my favorite picture books of all time, Peter Spier’s Oh, Were They Ever Happy!

Minji’s attempts at styling (and coloring) her dog’s hair are shown opposite pictures of a lady at a real hair salon, also getting her hair done. Minji’s hairdressing experiments with the dog somehow mirror the actions that the salon hairdresser is taking with the lady’s hair. The ending surprised and delighted me, and I predict that children will feel the same.

Author Eun-hee Choung also did the illustrations, and I’ll admit that the pictures are a little too fuzzy and indistinct for my tastes. I would have preferred more sharpness and detail, but each to his own. Actually, as I compare the covers, the illustrations are similar in style to the Peter Spier illustrations in Oh, Were They Ever Happy. You may love the illustrations. I also think the dog could have used a name, if only for the purposes of my review.

Even with those minor caveats, Minji’s Salon is one my favorites of all the Korean picture books that I’ve reviewed so far. If you have girls (or boys) who like to play dress-up and hair salon, this book would hit just the right spot.

New Clothes for New Year’s Day by Hyun-Joo Bae

Jul13

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

An adorable little Korean girl puts on her new clothes for New Year’s Day. She’s wearing:
Saekdong jeogori–a jacket made of colorful fabric. The one in the book has a rainbow of stripes down the sleeves with tiny images on the vest part.

Norigae–a charm that hangs from the jacket. I might skip this part of the text if I didn’t want to explain good luck charms to my read aloud buddy.

Chima–a red silk skirt.

Baessi Danggi–a decorated headband.

Ttitdon–a special ornament to link the charm to the jacket.

Jumeoni–a lucky bag.

Jobawi–a hat worn behind the headband to keep her head warm.

Beoseon–cotton socks with embroidered decorations on them.

Kkotsin–leather shoes covered with embroidered silk.

The book shows the unnamed little girl putting on each piece of her new wardrobe—all by herself and very carefully. In one picture the girl tumbles head over heels as she pulls on her new socks. In another, she struggles with her hair ribbon, until she gets it just right. One page does mention the “good luck charm” and “lucky bag”, but the emphasis is on starting out the new year with new clothes and a new attitude.

This picture book was originally published in Korea, and the illustrations are crisp, bright, colorful, and confined, to give a brilliant introduction to traditional Korean clothes and furnishings. In fact, the text is OK, but it’s the pictures in this one that shine. Read this one to your little girl, and she will want her own Korean New Year’s outfit. Time to play dress-up.

Other reviews:
Kelly at BigALittleA: “It’s a simple, yet beautiful and optimistic tale, completed by Hyun-Joo Bae’s stunning illustrations.”

The Miss Rumphius Effect: “Reading this made me reflect back on all those days of grade school when I waited anxiously to put on my “best” new outfit for that important first day. You can’t help but feel the excitement of the young girl as she dresses from head to toe.”

Jama’s Alphabet Soup: “There is joy in each piece, from the crimson silk skirt, to the rainbow-striped jacket, delicate socks embroidered with flowers, to the hair ribbon of red and gold.”

The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon by Janie Jaehyun Park

Jul12

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

Wikipedia: “Persimmons are eaten fresh, dried, raw, or cooked. When eaten fresh they are usually eaten whole like an apple or cut into quarters, though with some varieties it is best to peel the skin first. One way to consume very ripe persimmons, which can have the texture of pudding, is to remove the top leaf with a paring knife and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Riper persimmons can also be eaten by removing the top leaf, breaking the fruit in half and eating from the inside out. The flesh ranges from firm to mushy, and the texture is unique. The flesh is very sweet.”

In Korea, according to this folktale that author Janie Park heard from her grandmother, dried persimmons were given to children as a sweet treat. I’ve never tried persimmon dried or any other way. Have you?

The tale itself features a foolish tiger, a crying baby, and a hapless thief. The tiger learn a lesson about pride, the baby gets a treat, and the thief turns into an honest man–all because of a bit of dried persimmon fruit. I’m not sure there is any moral to the story, but it is an incentive to think about tigers, persimmons, babies, and thieves–all subjects I’ve not thought much about, certainly not in conjunction with one another.

The illustrations are a bit oddball for my tastes–an orange tiger with blueish purple stripes? The author/illustrator says she used “gesso, to make a unique texture on the paper, and then . . . acrylics” to create “brilliant, swirling illustrations” in “modern adaptions of the grand Korean artistic tradition.” I’m not enough of an art expert or an expert on Korea to know how successful she has been, but I prefer my pictures more crisp and detailed, less blobby and texturized. Some other reviewer for Booklist said the tiger in Ms. Park’s illustrations was “a coiled calligraphic mass of fear.” “Each to his own.

I did like the story. Unlike many folktales, it’s just scary enough with the tiger, but not really violent or horrific. The tiger is rather silly in his misunderstanding of the interactions between baby and mother, and the thief reforms himself after his accidental wild tiger ride. Preschoolers and primary age children should enjoy this taste of Korean folklore.

Maybe they would also enjoy a Korean persimmon treat, too. You can purchase an 8 oz. bag of dried persimmon slices at Amazon for about $10.00.

Goyangi Means Cat by Christine McDonnell

Jul11

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

Soo Min comes from Korea to join her adoptive family in the United States. Everything is strange and foreign to her, except for Goyangi, the cat. When Goyangi slips out the open front door and is lost, Soo Min feels lost and alone, too, and only the return of Goyangi the cat can make Soo Min feel at home in this new place.

This book is unlike the others I’ve reviewed this week in that it’s set in the U.S, not in Korea. However, the story gives insight into Korean culture and life, highlighting Korean vocabulary and opening the door to empathy for young readers who can imagine what it would feel like to be a new place where they couldn’t understand the language or the customs. Goyangi the cat becomes a familiar comfort for Soo Min as she navigates her new life in America.

Christine McDonnell, the author of this simple adoption story, is the mother of two Korean-born children. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, the illustrators are a married couple who used “paper collage and acrylic and oil paint” to create the artwork in the book. “The Patterns used in the paper collage were selected to reflect the Eastern and Western worlds of Soo Min.” Korean words written in Korean hanja are embedded into each of the illustrations.

So, are you ready to earn some Korean words (with English spelling, not hanja)?

Anyah=No
Ah-po=hurt
Gom=teddy bear
Mok-da=eat
Jip=house
Bahp=rice
Chim-dae=bed
Po-po=kiss
Omah=mother
Apah=dad
Goyangi=cat

We have a dog named Domo, from the Japanese (abreviated) “thank you”. Maybe our next cat, a very unlikely acquisition, will be named Goyangi, if I can figure out how to pronounce the word. This picture book is informative, but it doesn’t include a pronunciation guide.

Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park

Jul10

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

What do you think of when you think of Korean food? Since I don’t really know much about Korean cuisine, the only things that come to mind are rice and kimchi. At least, those were the only Korean dishes I knew anything about—until I read about Bee-Bim Bop.

Bee-bim bop means “mix mix rice”, and the child in this rhythmical, rollicking story is hungry hungry hungry/for some bee-bim bop!”, a Korean dish made with egg, veggies, a little meat, and rice. Of course, the real aloud time with this book must, must, must be followed up with a cooking adventure making Bee-Bim Bop. Fortunately, there’s a recipe in the back of the book. (Or here’s an internet recipe, called Bibimbap. Apparently, Korean spelling is somewhat flexible.)

You can get this book on the Kindle, but the layout is odd. The pages keep getting repeated, first in small print, and then with the same words in larger print. I don’t know why Amazon would let the book show up in this unwieldy formatting, but at any rate, I’d advise searching out a hard copy of the book to enjoy with your preschool or primary age student.

Whatever the format, I do recommend Ms. Park’s happy story of a Korean family shopping for and cooking a family favorite. The illustrations by Ho Baek Lee. a resident of Seoul, South Korea, are cartoonish enough to fit with the upbeat tone of the story and realistic enough to give children a family with whom to identify. The entire experience of reading this book aloud makes me hungry, hungry, hungry for some bee-bim bop!

Other reviews: Cynsations by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Dashing Bean, Betsy at Fuse #8, Fiction Addict.

Peach Heaven by Yangsook Choi

Jul9

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

The setting is Puchon, South Korea, 1976. Yangsook is day-dreaming about a peach garden in heaven–just like the calendar picture of children playing in a peach orchard that is posted above her desk. Puchon is famous for growing beautiful, juicy peaches that are sold all over Korea.

The voices of her grandma and her little brother come intruding into Yangsook’s daydream, telling her to come and look at the rain which has turned to hail. But it’s not hail—it’s raining peaches!

There were a couple of oddities in this story, which is actually based on a childhood memory of the author. First of all, I’ve never heard of peaches raining down from the sky, but I’m willing to suspend disbelief. But the other odd scene is when the the townsfolk bring the peaches back to the farmers’ orchards and tie them to the trees with yarn. Why? To console the farmers for the loss of most of their peach crop. I suppose it made a good visual image to tie the peaches to the trees, but it seems rather superfluous in practical terms.

Anyway, I doubt children will have the same questions that I did. Instead, they will most likely enjoy this quiet little story of a girl growing up in South Korea and an memorable episode in her childhood. The watercolor illustrations, which were done by the author, complement the story and its mood quite well.

The Firekeeper’s Son by Linda Sue Park

Jul8

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea

“We live in an important village,” Sang-hee’s father said.

The village doesn’t look very important to Sang-hee. However, it is a special place because Sang-hee’s father climbs the mountain near the coastal village in Korea every evening to light the watchfire. Then the firekeeper on the next mountain sees the fire that signals that everything is peaceful, no invaders, and he lights his fire as a signal to the next firekeeper and so on, all the way to the king’s palace in central Korea. The king sees the series of mountaintop watchfires and knows that his kingdom is safe.

If there is no fire, it means that the kingdom of Korea is in danger, and the king will send brave, noble soldiers to defend the land. Sang-hee knows the importance of peace in the land but wishes he could see the king’s soldiers just once. What will Sang-hee do when one night the watchfire doesn’t appear?

In an Author’s Note at the end of the book, Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park says that the bonfire signal system was used in Korea up until the late nineteenth century to protect the land from invasion. The actual system of fires was more complicated and extensive than the simple chain of watchfires presented in this picture book, but as a vehicle for character development and for conveying some information about the history and culture of Korea, the “firekeeper system” is a friendly and constructive image.

Sang-hee finds himself in a situation where he must decide whether to take responsibility and live up to his position as the firekeeper’s son, or to indulge his own fantasies at the expense of developing his character. It’s a decision that all of us, both children and adults, face frequently.

Julie Downing’s watercolor paintings bring out the colors and beauty of early nineteenth century Korea for those of us (me sometimes) who tend to think of the past in shades of gray. One illustration in particular (pages 18-19) is all purples and greens and yellows with a stunning late evening feel to it as Sang-hee and his mother look to the mountain and realize that something is wrong because the evening watchfire has not been lit.

Linda Sue Park is an exceptionally talented Korean American author who won the Newbery Award for her historical fiction novel, A Single Shard. She’s written several other books for young adults and middle grade readers, including Seesaw Girl, The Kite Fighters, A Long Walk to Water, and Keeping Score. Other picture books by Ms. Park include The Third Gift, a Christmas story about where the wise men may have gotten the gift of myrrh, and Bee-Bim Bop!, a book about a family cooking rice Korean-style.

IRIS (1), K-Drama Review

Jun19

'Byung- Hun Lee' photo (c) 2013, Eva Rinaldi - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/I just finished the final (20th) episode of the K-drama, IRIS, last night, and it was indeed a roller coaster of a television series. IRIS is a spy thriller with LOTS of violence. Engineer Husband, who heard the show’s soundtrack coming from my Kindle as I watched, commented that there certainly was a lot of gunfire. I could have told him, but didn’t, that there was also a lot of blood, gore, and death in the program. I think as a movie in the U.S. it would get an “R” rating just for the violence.

So why did I continue to watch? Well, the characters were fascinating. Best friends Kim Hyun-Jun (Lee Byung-hun) and Jin Sa-Woo (Jung Joon-ho) are training to become some kind of Special Forces soldiers in the South Korean Army when they are recruited to become part of NSS, a fictional counterpart to American CIA (although Korea does have an NIS, National Intelligence Service which is similar to the NSS portrayed in the TV show). During the recruitment process they both, unbeknownst to the other, meet and fall in love with Choi Seung-Hee (Kim Tae-hee), who is already an NSS agent. Hyun-Jun is the one who finds that his affection is returned by Seung-Hee.

'Kim tae hee 1' photo (c) 2010, Rashaine - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/The remainder of the series finds Hyun-Jun and Seung-Hee and Sa-Woo weaving in and out of alliances and (violent) confrontations as they work within and without NSS to fight against the super-powerful, super-secretive, evil IRIS organization. The three fellow agents encounter traitors within NSS and unusual alliances, specifically with North Korean agent Kim Seon-hwa (Kim So-yeon), outside. There’s also some doubt about whether Hyun-Jun, Seung-Hee, and Sa-Woo are traitors allied with IRIS themselves at any given time during the series.

The themes of the series seem to be enduring love and loyalty, friendship, and the legacy of violence. Hyun-Jun is a conflicted character, believing himself betrayed by his own country, but also in love with Seung-Hee who is a part of the organization that betrayed him. The violence is the series intensifies over the course of the twenty episodes, and Hyun-Jun becomes as much a perpetrator as a victim. All of the characters, in fact, are caught up in a spiral of violence, and Hyun-Jun at least is not sure what it all means or why he does what he does. Is he seeking revenge? Maybe. Is he trying to protect Seung-Hee? To some extent. But he says a couple of times something to the effect, “I didn’t join NSS to do good or to be patriotic. I just wanted to enjoy doing something that I do well.” He’s good at “spy stuff”, so he takes up the invitation to join NSS. In doing so, he places himself in a web of violence and deceit that can only be unravelled or ended by more death and bloodshed.

Matthew 26:52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

I found IRIS fascinating, even though it had a few dropped plot threads and holes. And, warning, the ending is horrid, although maybe appropriate in both its ambiguity and tragedy. The filmography is beautiful, with scenes taking place mostly in Seoul, but also in Japan and in Hungary. There is a second season of IRIS, with different actors for the most part, but I’m not sure it will be worth all the blood and bullets that must be waded through in this series. I would recommend season 1 for those who don’t mind the violence (and some strongly implied premarital cohabitation).

Headmistress, Common Room reviews IRIS and does an episode-by-episode recap.