Book festival brings Nami Island to life

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Book festival brings Nami Island to life

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The “Coloranimal” exhibition by Chilean author Maya Hanisch. The display of winning works at this year’s “Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours” (Nami Concours) is one of the highlights of the Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival (Nambook), currently underway on the island. Provided by the organizer

Nami Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon, is full of child-like, playful creativity.

It is considered an “independent culture state” and has fun, colorful rides, as well as vendors selling a diverse array of snacks and a lot of green space to play on.

But every spring, the island becomes even more appealing to children and young-at-heart individuals with a thing for books, stories and fairytales.

Since 2005, the “Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival” (Nambook) has taken place every spring. The event consists of dozens of activities such as exhibitions, performances and classes. Organizers say the whole island literally turns into “a playground for book-loving children.”

“The basic idea of Nambook is so that children can have fun with books, just play with it. They can even rip off pages, write on them or crumple them,” Lee Gye-young, the vice president of Nami Island, told journalists during a press conference on Thursday.

Among the exhibitions, one of the highlights is the “Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours” (Nami Concours), a competition in which 16 winning works are chosen.

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The festival’s other highlights include street performances (left) as well as the Unchiwon Book Playground, which opened in time for this year’s event. Provided by the organizer

It is Korea’s one and only event of its kind and Asia’s largest, according to the organizer. It takes place every other year.

In line with the theme for this year, “Into Books, Out of Books,” the exhibition hall is set up so that people can go into the book - quite literally - and enjoy it inside and out with various installations and sculptures, said Fred Minn, the director of Nami Island.

Marcelo Pimentel, Brazilian author of “The End of the Line,” won the Grand Prix award at the contest and said he wanted to use elements of his traditional culture for his book.

“I did not intend to convey an educational message, but the message in my book is about finding one’s identity,” he told journalists.

German-born Sonja Danowski, said her book is about feelings.

“I wanted to convey emotions with my book,” she explained.

Her work, ”Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village,” is another winner of this year’s contest.

“Emotion is something that is universal,” she said, adding that she believes children should be taught about sadness and that it is OK to feel it.

Junko Yokota, professor emeritus of Reading and Language at National Louis University in Chicago, was one of the judges of the contest. She said the jurors picked works they felt included “soul” and which would eventually draw children back.

Also of interest is the Unchiwon Book Playground, which opened in time for this year’s festival. In this area, nestled inside the beautiful nature of Nami Island, children can play with books or artwork inspired by books, read books, mess around in sand or go on rides if they feel like it.

Although for many tourists from Japan, China and Southeast Asia, the island is known for being the set of the 2001 drama “Winter Sonata,” it is also Korea’s only eco-friendly forest recognized by Unicef.

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From left: Authors who flew to Nami Island for the festival include Torben Kuhlmann, Marcelo Pimentel and Sonja Danowski.

Every year, some 3 million people visit Nami Island.

“Of the three million annual visitors, one million are from abroad,” Minn said. “That’s why several embassies contacted us, expressing a wish to set up their country’s pavilion.”

During the festival, there will be stands from six different countries: Malaysia, Israel, China, Peru, Oman and the Czech Republic. Visitors can experience the food, lifestyle and the children’s books and animations from these countries.

BY KIM HYUNG-EUN [hkim@joongang.co.kr]

“Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival” runs until May 31 at various venues on the island. There will be about 20 exhibitions, 50 performances, 20 classes people can participate in, and six workshops. Opening hours are between 7:30 a.m. and 9:40 p.m. Visitors can take a ferry to get to the island from Gapyeong Naru (or Gapyeong Port). The first ferry to the island is at 7:30 a.m. and the last ferry leaving the island is at 9:40 p.m. Ferry and entry fees to the island are 10,000 won ($9.17) for adults, 4,000 won for children and free for those under 36 months. For more information, call (031) 580-8114 or visit the island’s homepage at www.namisum.com.
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