VOL.69/2024.04

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co.

Children’s Laughter is Our Bright Future

 

2023.02.20

 

Laughing children are strong enough to make people around them feel happy. Like the phrase “children’s laughter is the bright future of our time,” one publisher has been giving children a big smile, building a brighter future with their books - Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. Since it was founded in 2005, Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. has released many books for children until now, hosted contests and meetings with readers, and published its content through diverse platforms. Let’s take a moment to listen to a story of Balgeunmirae Publishing Co., which makes children smile with tales they are familiar with.

 

 

Welcome. It’s a pleasure to have you on K-Book Trends. Please tell our overseas readers what Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. is and its mission.

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. started as a children’s book publisher in 2005. It has planned and developed many children’s books, like original children’s stories, picture books, educational comics, and study materials. Like its name, Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. was established to produce books that can help children build a bright future. We will continue to work to let children laugh joyfully with books and shine brighter.

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. has continued to walk its path since starting as a children’s book publisher. So, which part did the company focus on the most during the past 18 years?

 

Throughout the 18-year journey, the company has experienced many changes in the environment surrounding all publishers, including children’s book publishers. The changes also once seemed like a threat to the conventional publishing market. Many changes driven by smartphones brought changes in books’ content and forms as well as demography, not to mention library and education policies, significantly impacting the children’s book market. Amongst the changes, we continued to ask what we had to do. We asked ourselves, “What books do children need?”, “Why do children have to read books?”, and “What can books give to children?” While asking these fundamental questions, we tried many things and experienced failures. Yet, we will continue to make books to help children realize their dreams.

 

 

We strive to make books that can give a brighter future to children.

 

 

Many unique books produced by Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. catch our attention. Please introduce some of your representative series and their characteristics.

 

Until now, Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. has released many books and series, and I would pick the original children’s story series i-Storyville and the picture book series Balgeunmirae Picture Book as our representative series. The series i-Storyville delivers many stories children can relate to and hidden facts in tales. The Balgeunmirae Picture Book series is a collection of quality picture books from Korea and other countries. Recently, we’ve been releasing more books written by Korean picture book authors. Among the series, the rabbits in the recently released Rabbit Bakery on the Green Hill are adorable. Also, the picture book Smoke Looking for Friends helps children view the environment from a different perspective.

 

We heard that Balgeunmirae Publishing Co.’s educational comics are being produced as webtoons. Please tell us about your work in changing books into webtoons, such as which piece is under work and what you expect from making it into a webtoon.

 

It is said that webtoon viewers’ age is getting younger and younger. However, it is also true that there are few webtoons for young children. We were interested in webtoons or web novels for elementary school students. We came to make books into webtoons after hearing that Jellypage was preparing to launch a webtoon platform. The first book we made into a webtoon was No.1 Safety Comics. The book has the same name as an entertainment show that KBS aired to deliver safety information. We worked with the program to make it into an educational cartoon. In total, there are 39 books from seasons 1 and 2, and we are changing all of them into webtoons. People read paper books and webtoons differently as one can scroll down the pages to read webtoons, which makes it hard to convert. Regardless, we continue our work as we can feel the love children show. We wish our content meets more readers as the webtoon and web novel platform for children advances and collaboration between paper books and e-books continues.

 

 

Your company is organizing the “Dasaessu (meaning ‘to rewrite’) Bang Jeong-Hwan Literature Contest,” along with the Korea Bang Jeong-Hwan Foundation. Please tell us about the contest and the impressive winners.

 

We’ve been hosting the “Dasaessu Bang Jeong-Hwan Literature Contest” with the Korea Bang Jeong-Hwan Foundation for six years. Bang Jeong-Hwan is the one who made Children’s Day in Korea, the first person to announce the children’s rights declaration, and the person who made a magazine for children, contributing to improving the lives of countless children. He also wrote, adapted, and translated literature for children. He significantly impacted Korean children’s literature, but children might find him unfamiliar. Only a few of his writings are read as well. Therefore, the Korea Bang Jeong-Hwan Foundation and Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. created the “Dasaessu Bang Jeong-Hwan Literature Contest” to show children Bang’s writings by developing new original children’s stories inspired by Bang’s works and spirit.
We announced the 5th award winner in 2022 and are getting applications for the 6th contest. The winner of the 5th award – the book - will be published in May 2023. Five books won the contest, from the 1st one to the 4th one, and every award winner takes a special place in our hearts. If asked to pick only one book to introduce, we would recommend the 4th contest winner, In Order to Get BFF Cone, published last year. The book depicts the friendship of four children in many ways and makes one’s heart warm and feel good with its story.

 

You meet many readers through book-related events, such as the Seoul International Book Fair and the Korean Reading Fair. Do those activities help you learn about young readers?

 

Even if Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. is a children’s book publisher, the ones who plan, edit, and design are adults. So, it’s hard to understand children’s hearts and what they want completely. For that matter, we ask people around, teachers, experts, or parents, for their opinion whenever we have the chance. Of course, we get to introduce our books at events, but it is an exceptional experience for us as we listen to what readers think and see how children react to our publications. We will join the Seoul International Book Fair in 2023 and try to participate in other book-related events, such as Paju Children’s Book Party, as much as the situation allows. We also plan to host lectures and illustration exhibitions at writers’ schools or libraries, and our employees will participate in talks to communicate with children.

 

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. is famous for releasing diverse and quality original children’s stories. What are the standards in selecting stories to show to your readers?

 

When we plan or select children’s stories, we first consider how much children can relate to the story. Brilliant topics or unique settings can draw attention, and distinctive characters can give temporary popularity. However, we focus more on the connection. We see if the piece can draw readers into the construct of the story, make the characters’ emotions and attitudes sound persuasive, and strike a chord while keeping the worldview consistent. In other words, rather than the genre being fantasy, life, or history, we concentrate more on how much the characters’ actions and lines can touch readers’ hearts. Stories can only have a long life and meet more readers when they are relatable.

 

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. focuses on connection more than anything when making children’s books.

 

 

Please introduce the original children’s stories that many readers loved.

 

There are many that we would like to tell, but we recommend reading Half My Mother, Truth or Dare, and The Reason to Protect the Dog. The book Half My Mother’s main character Songju feels terrible for her mom as she has to care for Rumi, a 9-year-old kid with a developmental disorder. Songju feels like she only gets to take half of her mom. The book shows how Songju grows as she embraces Rumi after overcoming jealousy and loneliness.
Truth or Dare is a detective children’s story written from Minwoo’s viewpoint, who was accused of being a thief when there was a mysterious robbery in his class. It shows that children’s memory and what they saw may not always be right and depicts Minwoo’s feelings well. The thief revealed at the last moment is also shocking as the story is filled with plot twists.
The Reason to Protect the Dog is a novel for juniors. However, the book is written more like a novel. It is about six 6th graders competing in games to take care of a stray dog. As they play games, the characters get to understand each other and share why they want to raise the stray dog, which makes us feel a lot of things as we read.

 

 

Please share Balgeunmirae Publishing Co.’s goal for this year and its plan.

 

Balgeunmirae Publishing Co. will continue to try to make its content present on diverse platforms. As books in bookstores and as e-books, audiobooks, webtoons, and web novels, we aim to make this year the time we provide our content in various forms on various platforms. We also plan to write an environment-related book series for children. Environmental issues, including climate change, are significant ones everyone on Earth has to deal with, and it is a matter of survival. One cannot emphasize how critical the environmental issue is too much. Along with it, class, gender, and generational conflicts are not resolved but are getting more serious. Therefore, we are planning to discuss relevant topics in our books. Just like our company name, we will continue our efforts to build a bright future. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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