VOL.82/2025.05

 

Writer Choi Deok-Kyu

Breaking down language barriers and encompassing generations

 

2025.04.07

 

Picture books, a combination of pictures and words, are more than just children’s books; they can be a window to intergenerational communication. With this belief, writer Choi Deok-Kyu has been expanding the form of picture books and creating works that blend humanistic narratives with visual art. He believes that picture books can resonate deeply with children and adults who read them, and dreams of the butterfly effect that picture books can create. As a writer and the head of a one-man publishing house, he continues to dedicate himself to encouraging more people to empathize and communicate through picture books.

 

 

Thank you for accepting the interview. Please say hello to our readers with a brief introduction of yourself.

 

It’s a pleasure to meet readers from many different countries. I am a father and husband, and I make picture books by re-creating stories from ordinary life. As a picture book author and producer, I am trying to expand the possibilities of picture books by creating various experimental works.

 

It has been over a decade since you debuted at the Good Children’s Book Competition in 2015. How has your journey as an author been over the past decade, and how would you describe the trajectory of your writing career?

 

Before I got into picture books, I started my creative career in 2004 with a comic book called Parenting Stories of Yeoreum’s Family. I began working on picture books in earnest in 2011 with I’m a Monster (Yun Edition). I have been wandering and transforming in the realm of creativity for more than 20 years. The transition from comic books to picture books was natural as I raised my children. I see comics and picture books as the same in their organic relationship between words and pictures. However, I think picture books focus more on changes and visual variations within a limited scene. I think the boundary between comics and picture books is the difference in how they look at universal themes.
Aside from the content of picture books, I have been thinking about the formal aspects of picture books since I started running a publishing house. The book, Light In Us (Yun Edition), is an exquisite combination of content and form that explores the various meanings of light in our lives. Light brightens the surroundings, shares warmth, and allows life to grow and bear fruit. In line with the idea that there is also light in our hearts that we can share, the book is designed to reveal the content when you actually shine a light behind the paper. Since its publication in 2018, it has sold 25,000 copies in Korea alone. As a writer and producer, I have been expanding the scope of my work through closer communication with readers while producing and selling books. Through this new format of picture books that retains the physicality of paper books, I am gradually expanding into a picture book creator that crosses language barriers and encompasses generations.

 

 

Father’s Big Hands (Yun Edition), published in 2020, was an autobiographical story that made a big splash despite being self-published, and was honored with the Bologna Ragazzi Award in 2022. Tell us about the book and what it means to you.

 

The overall theme of my works is rooted in daily life. If my first picture book, I’m a Monster, was a story about desire revealed through a child playing inside an envelope, Father’s Big Hands is a picture book about the unspoken, heartfelt love that passes from father to son. It was when I went to my parents’ house for the weekend to drop my kids off. I found my dad dozing off, leaning against the dresser in the master bedroom, spending his old age with nothing of interest to do. He looked like he had taken a step back from life after living his entire life breathlessly. He was becoming more like a child: his fast walking pace when we went out was getting slower and slower, and I had to help him up and down the stairs. His teeth were falling out, his beard and nails needed to be trimmed, and his clothes needed to be smoothed. I was saddened to see that it was time for him to need someone’s hands. He was going back to the beginning of his life.
The son, who resembled his uptight father, couldn’t bring himself to say “I love you.” During a year of repeated hospitalizations and discharges, all I could do was shave and clip his nails. When I thought of my father in the shower at home, I would get a lump in my throat. I would feel sorry for him as he lay in the hospital, alone, without the comfort of a warm shower. That’s why I wanted to create a picture book that captured a blunt son’s affection for his father while he was still alive. I wanted to share the words that had been stuck in my throat all my life through the wordless picture book Father’s Big Hands.

 

 

It seems that your background in Western painting might give you an advantage as a picture book writer, being able to work with both words and pictures. What do you think are the strengths of being able to do both roles?

 

Linguistic and visual expressions are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think things that are more holistic and emotional that can’t be explained in words are brought out in pictures. It seems to me that the clarity of words is the linguistic strength. There are scenes that are effective when shown in pictures, and scenes that are more convincing when expressed clearly in words. I also like it when the words and illustrations tell their own independent stories, amplifying the effect. This is when the text and illustrations are not dependent on each other, but are able to speak for themselves, like a coordinated couple. When the words and pictures meet, the picture book becomes more than just 1+1=2.

 

 

I also like it when the words and illustrations
tell their own independent stories, amplifying the effect.

 

 

Together with your wife, author Kim Yun-Jung, you are running a publishing house called Yun Edition, taking care of all the processes from creation to design, production, and sales. It seems that Fold and Unfold (Yun Edition) is the perfect example of this. Please give us a brief introduction to the book and share with us the charm and value of picture books that you wanted to capture in Fold and Unfold.

 

Fold and Unfold is a work in which the actual act of folding pages creates an extension of the text, drawings, and other unexpected spaces for the reader. In the case of Light In Us, we couldn’t find a publisher who was willing to publish it at first because of the production difficulties, which led us to start our own publishing company. We call ourselves a publishing company, but we don’t take on other authors’ books, only our own. It’s a good thing that we can do diverse and experimental works, but we are always busy with things other than creating.
The form of a picture book is just as important as the content, and the way it’s made can bring out the best in its themes. Flap books, where folded pages are unfolded, are a popular form for children’s hidden object games. Kim Yun-Jung’s Long, Long, Fold-out Book (Yun Edition) is another example of a flap book that features unexpected surprises as you unfold and unroll the pages. I once asked a silly question: what if you folded the pages instead of unfolding them? As we were folding the pages and talking about the sample illustrations, Kim asked, “What if you unfolded the folded pages?” The question turned out to be the answer. Take the right half of the unfolded page, which shows a dense forest, and fold it over to meet the left half. The dense forest is gone, and you are left with a single tree. When you unfold the folded page, the scene expands to show those trees clustered together to form a tall mountain. The rhythm of folding and flipping creates a cyclical movement.
Without a doubt, we were both enthused by the new format of turning the pages. While Kim was organizing the text and thinking about the themes that the story could touch, I began designing the illustrated scenes in earnest. It was a challenge to create transitions to new scenes that were unexpected when folded, and it was important that the design felt natural, like putting together the pieces of an intricate puzzle. And so, after several revisions to capture the visual beauty of the illustrations along with the compelling nature of the scenes themselves, the book made its debut at the Seoul International Book Fair in 2023, after a long COVID-19 period.

 

 

In the past, Korean picture books have been dominated by foreign translations; however, in recent years, Korean original picture books have become more diverse in topic and have gained in popularity. Why do you think Korean picture books have become one of the most important genres of K-Culture and are loved by readers around the world?

 

I think it’s because they are doing a great job of capturing active, dynamic transformations. I feel that the growing cultural stature within the globalized trend has made our picture books more compelling. I think it’s also because they go beyond being deeply personal and bridge generations - picture books that spark joy and happy feelings in even the adults who read them to their children.

 

 

I hope that picture books will become a genre of art and literature that enriches lives.

 

 

You often give talks at places like public libraries and do various activities to help children become more familiar with books. How do these experiences influence your creative process, and what message do you ultimately want to convey to readers?

 

The range of readers is expanding from young children to adults and even seniors. Readers’ voices from the field also expand our thoughts about creating books. There is a dual reader structure of adult readers who approach picture books as a learning tool for educational purposes and young readers who see them as a fun way to play. I hope that people can stop seeing them as just an educational object for children and approach them as a genre of art and literature that can enrich their lives. This is where the primary efforts of authors and publishers who produce good works are urgently needed.

 

Picture books are often referred to as a “universal language” as they can cut across language barriers and resonate with people of all ages. What do you think makes your works more appealing to international readers?

 

It never ceases to amaze me how Father’s Big Hands, followed by Light In Us and Fold and Unfold, are so well received by readers when they go to book fairs abroad. I think it’s a hunger for something new; I also think it’s a tie-in with a shift in readers enjoying the unfamiliarity of a new format that doesn’t require hours of focused attention to read a book, and that touches an immediate and emotional point that only picture books can. In the case of Light In Us, I have even had locals in Italy who have heard the buzz and requested copies, even paying for international shipping, which is more than the cost of the book.

 

 

Recently, there has been a growing interest in Korean literature and picture books overseas, and you are playing a big role in this. Besides Father’s Big Hands, do you have any other works that have been well received by overseas readers?

 

Father’s Big Hands has been published in Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, China, Taiwan, and Japan. Light In Us continues to be a favorite at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair every year, selling Korean-edition copies, but has yet to break through the export barrier due to production difficulties. Fold and Unfold, the follow-up to Light In Us, was published in China last year and met with local readers at the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair. Where Are You Going, Mr. Turtle? (Yun Edition), a follow-up to What Are You Doing, Mr. Turtle? (Yun Edition), will be published in Taiwan this year.

 

 

You are broadening the spectrum of the picture book genre with works that cover a variety of audiences and topics. Please tell us about your future plans and goals, and what books you are currently working on.

 

I mentioned earlier how picture books are a collaboration between words and pictures, and how they are a fascinating medium that combines humanistic narratives with visual art. Also, what makes picture books so compelling is the interplay of content and form. I am trying to produce books that are at the delicate point where the properties of paper and the shape of the book carry the content. I tend to be drawn to making picture books with a unique format that requires a human touch rather than a mechanical process. It would be a bonus if it had a humanistic depth that conveys the meaning of that format. My dream is to create a three-dimensional picture book that can be touched, folded, and unfolded by hand and reflect on its meaning. I’m currently working on a follow-up book that takes the format of Light In Us. In a world that is changing rapidly day by day, I dream of making picture books that people can show to their children as the ones they enjoyed as children, and that will be loved for generations to come. Thank you.

 

 

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