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 continuing to visit Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

The unnamed narrator of this simple story is a little Korean girl who has a pet cat. As girl and cat play together, the cat copies the girl’s actions: hiding in the closet, chasing after insects, sitting quietly together. Then the girl decides to copy her cat and gain strength and inspiration from the independence and fearlessness of her cat.

That’s about it. There’s not much of a plot, and the story ends where it begins, girl and cat together. The illustrations, by author Yoon-duck Kwon, are colorful and engaging, but rather odd in places, at least to Western eyes. In most of the illustration girl and cat stand together about the same size, which seems a little off. And in one picture the girl looks out from inside the cat’s eye. I don’t know exactly what that’s supposed to mean.

However, this gentle tale of a girl and her cat might appeal to cat lovers and pet adventurers as they identify with the girl and her pet. I just hope nobody tries to copy the girl on the front of the book as she copies her cat and crawls on top of a bookshelf full of books!