Patience is a virtue for young brothers in award-winning Korean children's book

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Patience is a virtue for young brothers in award-winning Korean children's book

Published: 04 Mar. 2025, 13:50 Updated: 04 Mar. 2025, 18:35

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Creators and models of the children's book ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ (2024) pose for photos at photographer Lee Ga-hee's home in Incheon, last month. From left are Lee, her children Ji-gu and Ji-ho and writer Jin Joo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

[Interview]

On a recent Monday, two small, familiar heads peered out from a living room in Songdo, Incheon, as sunlight poured in from the apartment window.

Nine-year-old Ji-gu, with mature eyes, and his eight-year-old brother Ji-ho, with a bob haircut, were just as they appeared in their mother Lee Ga-hee’s debut picture book, “If You Want to Eat a Red Apple” (2024).

Lee Ga-hee's photographs in ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ feature her children, Ji-gu and Ji-ho. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The book, with text by Jin Joo, 46, and photographs by Lee, 36, received a Bologna Ragazzi award last month, considered the most prestigious accolade for children’s book authors and artists. It won in the Opera Prima category, which is one of the five permanent prizes and recognizes debuting publications by authors and illustrators. The pair are the first Koreans to win in this category.

Cover of the children's book ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ (2024). It won this year's Bologna Raggazzi Award's Opera Prima prize given to debuting picture book authors. [FINGER PUBLISHING]

“If You Want to Eat a Red Apple” starts with an apple tree that the two brothers’ grandfather plants on the day Ji-gu is born.

Ji-gu and Ji-ho grow up waiting for that tree to bear the perfect fruit. As the seasons turn, the image of the shiny red apple stays with them — whether they’re staying sheltered on a rainy summer day, climbing a tree or ice fishing. One day, after what seemed like an interminable wait, the tree finally produces a ripe crimson apple. When Ji-gu hears this news, he runs toward his house, but can’t ignore the calls for help from people on the way. Meanwhile, the apple falls into Ji-ho’s hands.

The book began to take shape two years ago when Jin Joo, a published children’s book author, brought the idea to her neighbor Lee, who had never worked on a book before but was a fine arts major who worked at a design company.

Upon accepting the proposal, the first thing Lee did was to head south to her mother’s home in Sacheon city, South Gyeongsang, with her film camera. She also planted an apple tree for the book.

Lee Ga-hee's photographs in ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ feature her children, Ji-gu and Ji-ho. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The subsequent work took a whole village. Her two sons, her ship crew member husband — who often isn't home — a granny sitting at a bus stop in Sacheon and the neighborhood’s stray cat all became models for the book. The children’s four grandparents acted as staff for the shoots, holding up colored papers for different backdrops.

“I had to climb a tree for a photo but a caterpillar jumped out from the leaves and I cried,” Ji-gu said. “I had to run a lot for the photos of me sprinting,” Ji-ho added.

It is worth noting, however, that the two brothers in the fictional book do not live with their parents but are raised by their grandparents.

“I thought that it could be hurtful for some children to see a mom and a dad, as if that is the given norm, in every picture book,” said Jin Joo. “In this book, the kids don’t lack anything because of the absence of their parents.”

Lee Ga-hee's photographs in ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ feature her children, Ji-gu and Ji-ho. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Between the lines of “If You Want to Eat a Red Apple,” there is a gentle nod to all children growing up at their own pace — from some who fearlessly run toward something at warp speed to others who are more cautious and discerning of their surroundings.

“I believe there will come a day when being able to walk slowly, to hear the rustling of the grass and to smell the flowers will be considered important skills and advantages,” said Jin Joo.

Commenting on the much more competitive reality today that many children face in Korea, she hoped the book could appease some of their pain. As for herself, Jin Joo said: “I want to be an adult who, just because she wants to see a flower, doesn’t forcefully rip open the petals on the bud, but rather finds joy in patience.”

Lee Ga-hee's photographs in ″If You Want to Eat a Red Apple″ feature her children, Ji-gu and Ji-ho. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“If You Want to Eat a Red Apple” is also about the art of waiting. To be alive means to cycle through wait, hope and despair, and as much as there is pain, there is also beauty, and a hint of magic involved.

For Jin Joo, the Bologna Ragazzi award was the long-awaited red apple.

“Receiving [the Bologna Raggazzi] award, I felt the same as Ji-gu when he felt like giving up on ever getting that red apple — he was handed one by the people,” she said. “At a time when I was wondering if I should continue writing picture books, the award felt like encouragement: ‘Yes Jin Joo. Let’s do this for a bit longer.'”

Lee said that the news still feels surreal. “Everything is a first for me, and I feel like I’m playing catch-up with reality.”

The two will receive the physical award at the 2025 Bologna Children's Book Fair, which will run for four days, starting March 31 in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1963, the Bologna Children's Book Fair is the world’s largest publishing trade show focused on youth literature.

To their readers, the pair said that they ultimately wanted to impart hope.

“Dear children and adults who are afraid of losing themselves amid social roles and responsibilities — somewhere in this world, your red apple is ripening, even if you can’t see it now.”