Yellow Umbrella: A Picture Book from Korea

I was approached by someone at Kane Miller Books to review some of their children's books, and one of the selections I received was Yellow Umbrella by Jae Soo Liu and Dong Il Sheen.   This book previously won the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award for it's beautiful watercolor illustrations. Kane Miller is a publisher that specializes in translations of foreign-language children's books into English.

Yellow Umbrella is not so much a storybook as a picturebook accompanied by music.  Included in the back of the book is a CD that you play along with the story.  We have several books with a CD of the author or some actor reading the story, and I have to confess that we never listen to them.  Since my son Alex is six, I'd rather read them myself or have him try to read them.  In this case, the CD is integral to the book, since there are no words, and the music tells the story along with the pictures.

I found this book to be enchanting and unexpectedly moving as I went through the pages.  The pictures are beautiful renderings of a rainy day, shown from a bird's eye view of the top of an umbrella moving through a neighborhood, through city streets, through a park and onto the final destination.  As the yellow umbrella moves, it is joined by other umbrellas of different colors, but you don't see who is beneath them until the very end. 

The music plays the part of the rain and lets you know when it is raining harder or softer as the umbrellas make their journey.  It is simple piano music, and I was surprised at how much emotion and mood was set by the tune.

I looked at this book with Alex, and I think he wanted more action or conflict in the "story" so we ended up making up our own story to go along with the pictures.  We talked about where the people might be going, where they lived, and what they might do when they got to their destination. 

At the end of book, there is a song sung in Korean, with the words in English translated at the back of the book so you can read along. The singers are an adult male voice and a child.  It's a very sweet song about an umbrella, and possibly an opportunity to learn a little Korean.

I think this book would appeal to kids of all ages, from infants just learning to interact with books and music, to older kids who can use their own imaginations to create a story or paint a picture or a sing a song that they make up themselves.  I think this book would delight infants and parents alike and would be a great alternative to the Baby Einstein videos.  For toddlers and pre-schoolers, you can use the book to teach colors and counting.

I was impressed by the high-quality, glossy pages of the book, and thought that it would be one that would stand the test of time--both in the timelessness of the story and presentation and in durability. We've had quite a few books get taste-tested, thrown around, and ripped to shreds, but I thought that this book was well-made and would be one I'd want Alex to pass along to his own kids someday.

The value of reading with your child, at any age, is not so much what they learn from the story, but the intimate interaction between parent and child.  It's the shared experience of words, pictures, and in this case, music, that draws you in together.  Some of my favorite times with Alex have been snuggling on the couch reading stories together, or seeing him read with his dad and grandparents.  I hope that those experiences will have a lasting impression on him and give him the lifetime gift of the joy of art, music, and reading.

Cross-posted at Kimchi Mamas and The Silent I

Comments

[Music_master]

Congratulations! You have so much useful information, write more.

[school_dubl]

Happy New Year! Happiness and success in 2011.

[Realestate]

Hi Merry Christmas and Happy New Year