Hyewon Yum's Blog, page 16

this is YOUR house?

When I was a kid, I always loved to hear  my father's story. My father  has these most  interesting stories and he could describe all the things as if it's just happened right before my eyes. Oh, how I loved it...
I could imagine the scenery so well because my father is one great storyteller and also we'd visited the house he grew up every year for holidays.
In that old house, I could see my father, a young boy, walking out of the house with his lunch box(containing only rice and salted beans) wearing his big brother's worn out pants, past the big old tree.
It was such warm moments when I realized that I stand in the same place where my father, once a boy, had grown up.

Now I have my own kids,  I read books to them before bedtime, but sometimes I love to tell my stories starting with "When I was a little kid like you..." and my kids loves it, too.
I wanted to make a book that can lead another stories, your own stories. I hope after you close the book "THIS IS OUR HOUSE", you can tell your own stories to your children.

Starred review from Kirkus

THIS IS OUR HOUSE [STARRED REVIEW!]
Author: Hyewon Yum
Illustrator: Hyewon YumAn ode to a place called home, related by a young girl describing photos of a brick building and the memories her family made there through three generations.
With the feeling of a photo album, the book leads readers through the story of a simple house. “This is the house / where my grandparents arrived from far away / with just two suitcases in hand.” On the left side of the page, above the text, is a painted “photograph” of an unassuming building—there’s no color, a bare tree, no life to be seen. On the facing page, the full-bleed illustration shows a man and a woman, holding hands, stepping up to the building with two suitcases in hand. Reflective and quiet, the pages progress with the staged photographs of this young couple’s life displayed on the left, while the right side reveals more. A baby is born and learns to walk, children pose on the stairs before school, a child leaves for college. When the perspective shifts to the narrator’s family, the pattern of the double-page spreads reverses itself in a lovely shift. The contrast between the simplicity of the text (“This is the street / where I learned to walk, / just like my mom”) and the richness of life revealed in the watercolor illustrations shows how the building becomes alive with the history of the young girl’s family.A lovely, unassuming paean to place and belonging. (Picture book. 3-8)

When we tell our stories, we make power

My little one is graduating from his preschool, and this is what they wrote on their t-shirts.How simple, yet true.

Review from PW (5/27/13)

This Is Our HouseHyewon Yum. FSG/Foster, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-374-37487-7A small girl with twin braids narrates her family’s history with pride, starting with when her grandparents arrived at a brick rowhouse on a leafy street, coming from “far away with just two suitcases in hand.” Since then, three generations have marked the seasons and personal milestones outside the house’s front door (“This is the street where I learned to walk, just like my mom,” says the girl), found snug shelter within its walls (“This is the room where they all slept together on cold winter nights”), and consumed homemade soup in its kitchen. Told in sunny, openhearted watercolor vignettes and snapshotlike framed images, Yum’s (Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!) story of how a house became a longtime home may feel exotic to readers whose own family histories are comparatively transient. But its essence will ring true, regardless: we’re connected not just by genes and bloodlines, but also by the places we share. An inviting personal history that would pair well with Jacqueline Woodson’s similarly themed This Is the Rope, also out this summer. Ages 3–8. Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sheldon Fogelman Agency. (Aug.)

Golden kite books

Illustration for Golden Kite book award!

Visit to CHOO CHOO

Hooray Parade's Stellar Review from PW

Joosse (Lovabye Dragon) celebrates imagination and a grandmother’s creativity in this carefree story loosely based on her children’s song, “Hip Hooray Parade.” Framed as a guessing game, the book has a sense of playfulness that derives from freewheeling verse, rhyme and repetition, and nonsense words. Much to the delight of her granddaughter, the contents of Gramma’s basket are gradually revealed when she hangs up a sheet and uses props to create shadows that hint at the identity of various animals (“Gallump gallump./ Can you guess what’s coming up?”). A page flip shows the entire animal in full color and high spirits: an elephant with “a pink and purple stripy trunk” balances on a ball; rhinoceri tethered to orange balloons float in the air; and a kangaroo and her joey are “a-rooting and a-tooting” their blue kazoos. Yum (Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!) uses watercolors and linoleum block prints to create spare yet festive illustrations, which pop from the white backdrop. A jubilant parade led by Gramma and granddaughter caps off this rousing and affectionate romp. Ages 3–5. Illustrator’s agent: Sean McCarthy, Sheldon Fogelman Agency. (June)

Reviewed on: 04/29/2013

Ejk caramel cake!

NY metro Parents

Sprit of Ezra Jack Keats

It's a book

The first copy of Hooray Parade arrived