Author: Yangsook Choi
Genre: Fantasy / Animal / Drama / Suspense
Year Published: 1997
Year Read: 2013
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Some Threatening Moments)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
I have been reading many Korean folktales over the years, but “The Sun Girl and the Moon Boy” was definitely one unique tale that I had just recently read! “The Sun Girl and the Moon Boy” contains elements of “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids,” except in this version, it is a tiger who threatens the children of this story!
In this story, when a woman leaves her two children at home
to go to the market, she unfortunately encounters a tiger who wants to eat her
corn cakes. But when the Tiger eats all
of the woman’s cakes, he ends up eating her and putting on her clothes to fool
her children.
After reading other versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” like “Lon
Po Po” which is a Chinese version of the classic story, I was interested in
reading more different versions of “Little
Red Riding Hood.” Imagine my delight
when I finally stumbled upon a Korean version of “Little Red Riding Hood” and this story was just as fantastic as
the other “Little Red Riding Hood”
versions I had read! Yangsook Choi did a fantastic job at
writing this story as the story was both intense and beautiful at the same
time. I loved the way that Yangsook Choi allowed the story to
teach children to be careful of letting strangers into their homes and the
consequences that may come with it. I
think that it made the story even more effective to read through and parents
can easily warn their children about the dangers of letting strangers into
their homes. I also loved the Korean elements
in this story as Yangsook Choi had
an excellent author’s note at the end of this book that explains how this story
was close to her and I always loved the fact that such stories are close to an
author’s heart. Yangsook Choi’s illustrations were just beautiful as the tiger is
drawn so realistically that its presence really brings a threatening atmosphere
to the story. I also loved the way that the illustrations have a glow on each
character and setting as it makes the illustrations so gorgeous and effective
to look at!
Parents should know that a character gets eaten in this
story and the story has an intense atmosphere that might frighten young
children. Also, the ending of this story
might seem a bit unclear for smaller children since not much was clearly stated
about what happened to the characters in the end. Parents might want to read this book before
they show it to their children.
Overall, “The Sun
Girl and the Moon Boy” is a truly fantastic folktale for anyone who loves
reading folktales from Korea. I would recommend this book to children ages
five and up since the scenes with the Tiger threatening the children might
scare smaller children.
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