Picture book break down with David Hohn today!
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Just a reminder that the pb break down is today! We'll get started at 2pm MDT (check here for other time zones).
We'll be going over Waiting For Mama, illustrated by Kim Dong-Seong. It's sure to bring up feelings!
As always, shoot me an email if you need an event link
Director of Sunshine and Rainbows
lisa@svslearn.com -
@LisaF yippee! Looking forward to it!
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During the discussion today I referenced a video and typed interview with the illustrator of Waiting for Mama, Kim Dong-Seong.
If you would like to hear/read about a bunch of choices the illustrator made, straight from the illustrator check out this video and this interview.
Both are in Korean, so hit up a fluent friend or give the Google translate a go. (Heads up, the google translate isn't perfect but you'll get the gist)
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Really enjoyed this! Great stuff, gave me so much to think about.
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I really enjoyed this session. Are we able to suggest books for review? I'm really curious about the difference in style between British and American picture books so I wonder what you would make of a UK bestseller / classic.
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Are the previous reviews available to watch? I have looked through the courses on the svs website but I can't seem to find them. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?
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@geekinm You can find the interviews in the class "jump into the studio" . once you have opened it, just scroll down to the bottom
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@Moana-Maureen Great thanks!
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I just watched the "waiting for mama" picture book breakdown now. It was very interesting, I spot the mama and the kid on the last spread in 3 seconds when David jumped his slides to that last spread. Was it a culture thing? we read images differently?
The ending is so brilliant... How did the illustrator come up with this? I am breath taken by the ending. My interpretation is more towards the dark side. I think death (of the child and the mother) is strongly implied(especially with the vignette scene right before the last spread), and so does the hope (for something more profound). Maybe the artist is hinting that ordinary people dies in the time of the war, but he is still hopeful for a better world/future somehow. I think maybe that is why the artist chose to depict the child and the mother walking home as a very small figure in a large scene.
I would love to read this book for my kid. I agree with Lee that it would not be her favourite book in any way. But I think it is important to read kids good books, even they may found it boring at time. It is like if I let my kid choose dinner everyday, she would end up only eating candy and pizza. hehehe... Does anyone know if the book is still in print, and where I can buy a new copy. I can only found it on abebooks (second hand).
I should recommend the book to be translated in Norwegian to my Norwegian editor. So many children's books in Norwegian is about death. I remember at some point I was in the local library trying to avoid borrowing a book about death to read for my then toddler daughter, and that was not an easy task.
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@xin-li Really great to read your thoughts on this!
Honestly I'm amazed that you saw the mother and child on that last spread so fast. I think you can simply claim really sharp eyes!I just checked the US Amazon and there's a copy available (also used) for a very reasonable $77! (Yikes!)
Does feel like this book is ready for a reprint. It's not even that old!
If you make it happen with your publisher please keep us posted. I would love to claim that this discussion somehow had a part in bringing a book back into print! -
Hi @xin-li, I bought my copy from Abesbooks in the end, (for £9) which is the exact same as the one David discussed. You can buy it new in the UK (for £9.99) but it's called "Waiting for Mummy" and has a completely different font on the cover - I haven't been able to find out if the same font is used throughout the whole book. (I personally found both of these differences really off-putting
) If you order from Waterstones, they order direct from the publisher, Wilkins Farago, who are based in Australia.
http://wilkinsfarago.com.au/?s=waiting+for+mummyAlso love this book! It's so unusual. Thank you David Hohn for all these PB breakdowns, they're so good and always give me so much to think about!
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@ruth thank you very much Ruth. The UK version of the book made it cuter (which is kind of inappropriate somehow, in my opinion): both with the choice of typeface and change the word "Mama" to "mummy". But I would still love to have a copy.
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@xin-li Yes, inappropriate is exactly right! I hope you manage to find a copy without the weird font and naming choices.
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@ruth thanks Ruth. I actually trying to search if there is a Chinese translation. But I do not know how they translate the artists name, or the book name in Chinese
