Dear Kim Dong Hwa,

The Color of Water – Kim Dong Hwa

In this second volume of a coming-of-age manwha trilogy, Ehwa hopes that her third romance will be the charm.  When she catches the eye of a young wrestler named Duksam, she begins to think he may be the right one for her–but she still has some growing up to do, and learns that love is always complicated.

It seems like not very long ago at all that I was reading The Color of Earth, and wishing fervently for the next book, and now here it is!  The Color of Water has that sort of slow flowing quality that many middle books in a trilogy have; the story is neither beginning nor ending, but must support the weight of those two opposites.  You’ve done that quite steadily in this book; Ehwa is growing up, and we see her mother in a new light now–less the wise older woman and more an older sister, someone who knows what love is, but pines for her picture-man just as Ehwa pines for Duksam.  You also hint at the future, making me think that perhaps Duksam will be the one that she marries, though there is clearly adversity to be overcome before that can happen.

As with the first book, I loved your fluid artwork and the peaceful, simple setting of the story.  I found, though, that as Ehwa gets older, I became a little more aware of my own displeasure with the role of women in her time and place.  There’s nothing to be done about it–it’s a cultural difference, in an older time, and since it’s based on a real person, there’s not much you can do but tell the story true.  You do make it beautiful, and you certainly appeal to my femme side with the flower fragrances and delicate prose, but my feminist side was still more bothered by this book than the previous one.  Still, there’s nothing to be done about it, and I’m still extremely fond of both books and can’t wait for the third.  Five stars again, for beautiful art and a lovely story, and for making me think.

Love,

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Dear Jonah Winter and André Carrilho,

I picked up You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! as a gift for a friend, not for any of the logical reasons, but because Sandy Koufax is one of the baseball players mentioned in a song in our favorite musical, Falsettos.  Imagine my delight when I read it before wrapping it up, and discovered that not only did it serve as an obscure reference between my friend and I, but it’s also a spectacular picturebook!  The writing was funny and endearing, and I loved the chummy teammate voice you use to address the reader.  Of course, for me picturebooks are always really about the art–and this art is spectacular.  The only images of the cover I could find don’t show it, but the book has this fantastic lenticular cover image that, when you tilt the book side to side, shows Sandy winding up for a fierce high-speed pitch.  The interior art is incredibly striking, too; the cool grays and blues and understated golds of the spreads give the whole thing an art deco kind of feel, which I totally love, and it’s all full of long fluid limbs and dynamic lines and soulful, Hirschfeld-esque close-ups.  The art really brought home the sheer athletic beauty of a baseball player I knew next-to-nothing about before.  You’ve managed to make a sports biography that reads like any great picturebook, which is no easy feat!  Five stars, for sure!

Love,

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Dear Kim Dong Hwa,

I heard about The Color of Earth some time ago, and decided after I saw the beautiful cover that it would go on my list of highly anticipated things to read.  So, when it appeared at the bookstore, I picked it up, and was quite happy I did!  I loved the languid pace of the story, and the sort of…dreamlike quality of the whole setting.  I loved the moments of intimacy between mother and daughter, and I laughed out loud at all the misinformation passed around by the village children as they’re pre-pubescing.  Then, of course, there’s the art–it’s incredibly beautiful.  Simple, delicate, flowing, and there was always a lot of restful white space for my eyes.  That the story is biographical was icing on the whole wonderful cake, bringing a very pleasant sense of nostalgia to the story.  Five stars, and I can’t wait to read the next one.

Love,

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Dear Leonard Marcus,

I’m such a fan of your nonfiction!  You seem to pop up everywhere, on all sorts of lovely things.  Sadly, Margaret Wise Brown:  Awakened By the Moon was slow going for me at the beginning.  By the time I finished it, though, I was left with a good overall impression. Her death, which I didn’t know any details of before, was quite sudden and sad, in life and in the book, and I was pleased to learn all the interesting things you had to teach about the lovely MWB.  I’m giving this one a solid four stars.

Love,

Wanna check out this title for yourself?  Try the Indie Bound or ABC bookstore finders!