[BOOK REVIEW] The Green Frogs by Yumi Heo

Title:  The Green Frogs

Author:  Yumi Heo

Genre: Folktale / Korea/ Family / Manners

Year Published: 1996

Year Read:  1997

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company     

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Death of a Parent)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I have read many folktales from Russia, China, and Africa, but never have I heard a folktale from Korea. While I was searching for some children’s books in the library, I stumbled upon a book called “The Green Frogs.” At first, I thought that this was going to be a comedic story; however, I was awed at how serious yet true this story really is. “The Green Frogs” is a great story about facing the trials that each parent goes through whenever their child misbehaves and the guilty conscious that the child suffers through whenever their parents are gone. Since, this story has many Korean aspects; it is surely to be another classic folktale from around the world.

Yumi Heo does an excellent job at retelling and illustrating the escapades of the two green frogs and their mother. Yumi Heo’s retelling of an ancient Korean folktale has a great moral about the consequences of disobeying your parents as the green frogs regretted the fact that they have caused their mother nothing but grief over the years and the somewhat sad realization that Mother Frog never knew that her sons had listen to her for once in their lives. Yumi Heo’s illustrations are as creative as they are simplistic. The frogs are displayed with rounded heads and large mouths and Heo adds an assortment of plants and flies on the background to give the story a chaotic sense since the two frogs are actually chaotic throughout the entire story.

“The Green Frogs” is a fantastic Korean folktale about the importance of listening to your parents and the reality that a child would face whenever their parent passes away and they spend most of their lives regretting all the horrible acts they have committed against their parent. This book is extremely pleasant to read and is appropriate for children ages four and over, even though this book does discuss the death of a parent and how it has affected to the sons in this story.

[BOOK REVIEW] The Sun Girl and the Moon Boy: A Korean Folktale by Yangsook Choi

Title:  The Sun Girl and the Moon Boy:  A Korean Folktale

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)

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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.

[BOOK REVIEW] The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo

Title:  The Korean Cinderella

Author:  Shirley Climo

Artist:  Ruth Heller


Genre: Fairy Tale / Folktale / Korea


Year Published: 1993


Year Read: 2012

Publisher:  HarperCollins

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Child Mistreatment)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

For many years, I have read so many different interpretations of “Cinderella,” but I have never come across a Korean version of this classic tale!  “The Korean Cinderella” is a glorious retelling of the classic “Cinderella” written by Shirley Climo along with illustrations by Ruth Heller and it will surely be an instant hit with children who love reading stories from other cultures!

In the land of Korea, where magical creatures existed, there lived a young girl named Pear Blossom who was extremely beautiful.  One tragic day however, her mother died and her father ended up marrying a mean and spiteful woman named Omoni, who also has a daughter named Peony and they were both cruel to Pear Blossom and made her do all the work around the house.  Even though Omoni forces Pear Blossom to do so many chores, Pear Blossom is helped by many magical creatures such as a magical frog, magical sparrows and a magical ox.  One day however, a festival is held and Pear Blossom notices the handsome magistrate, but she accidentally leaves behind one of her sandals, which the magistrate ends up finding.

I will admit that I have read so many different versions of Cinderella that the story itself becomes familiar to me, no matter how different the versions are.  Shirley Climo has done a brilliant job at writing this Korean retelling of the classic fairy tale as the story is truly breathtaking and marvelous to read about.  I loved the way that Shirley Climo portrayed the magical creatures that eventually help Pear Blossom on her chores as regular animals such as a frog, a pack of sparrows and an ox as that really brought out the beauty of Korean folktales.  I also loved the Korean phrases that were shown in this book such as Omoni, which means ‘Mother’ and ‘tokgabi’ which means ‘goblin.’ Ruth Heller’s illustrations are truly beautiful in this book as they were inspired by the patterns painted on the eaves of Korean temples, which truly brings out the true spirit of Korea.  Probably my favorite illustrations in this book were of the characters themselves, as they show realistic facial expressions whenever they are unhappy or whenever they are mad, such as the image of Peony having her hair be pulled by the sparrows and you can see the anguish look on her face as her hair is being pulled.

Overall, “The Korean Cinderella” is a brilliant adaptation of a classic fairy tale that fans of the “Cinderella” stories will surely love to read over and over again!  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since some of the Korean phrases like “Omoni” and “Tokgabi” might be hard for younger children to understand.