by Yoo Kyung Sung, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM This December I want to, literally, take you to a different world of words — more specifically a world of words in South Korea. Lately, Korean picture books have gotten worldwide attention due to their noticeable growth and uniqueness in styles. (From now on […]
Korean Rediscovery of the Power of Historical Fiction
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Between Trends and Reality: Revisiting Reviews and Discussing Cultural Authenticity
By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque December is not only the last month of the calendar year, but it also holds a special significance for academia as it marks the end of yet another semester. Most importantly, though, December is a time for reflecting upon the past year’s events and for valuing […]
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“Stereotypocide”: Rethinking Cultural Traditions
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Korea’s traditional beauty is mirrored in its architectures, symbols, pottery, and ancient palaces and make up most of the common “Korean” postcard faces I encountered when I visited one of the most popular and largest bookstores in Seoul, Kyobo books. I mumbled, “interesting,” and felt and […]
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Hearing Unheard Voices through Global & International Children’s Literature
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico Last week I attended the Literacy Research Association conference. I came home empowered and inspired to reflect on, “what now?” Conference presentations titles that I perused and thought about attending all focused in some way on “voice.” For example, providing conceptual tools for educators to sensitively engage […]
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Hearing Unheard Voices: New Mexico’s Children’s Literature
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico Land of Enchantment! — official nickname of the state I live in: New Mexico. I recall being urged to acquire some kind of “Green Chile literacy” about the culture and history of New Mexico before even packing for Albuquerque. (Green Chile sauce was selected as the best […]
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Historical Injustices Revisited: New Stories for Young Readers
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM December has always been my month to contribute to WOW Currents. In many ways, it has become a special month for me since it is at the end of the year and offers me, like everyone else, an opportunity to reflect on the past twelve […]
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Not-So-Happily-After: Russia’s Last Imperial Family and Broadening the Landscape of Children’s Russian Literary Experiences
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM In the story Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine (Whelan, 2014), the queen loves to swim. Her swimming is not without a dilemma: how does a queen swim and still maintain “propriety?” The more she thinks that she shouldn’t swim, the more she wants to swim. In […]
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Beyond the Nutcracker, Baba Yaga, and Ivan the Fool: Russian Children’s Books Mirror Ideology
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM “Russian children’s literature and culture are obscure subjects in the West. When they come up in a conversation, even the most Russia-savvy students shrug their shoulders and produce a genuinely puzzled look on their faces “ (Balina & Rudova, 2008, p.xv,) Earlier I looked at […]
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Russia Was Always There!: Reading World History through Russia Connections
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Language binds the past to the present. With the advent of high-tech, wireless devices that is even more evident as people interact in new and unique ways reflecting rapid evolution in language. New words are born every day while other words slip into obscurity. In […]
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Natural Disasters: What Should Children Learn?
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico & Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District This month we will discuss social meanings inherent in children’s literature, specifically addressing some recent global and national natural disasters that resulted in the heavy loss of human life as well as the destruction of homes. NCTE recently announced the […]
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Japanese National Trauma: Changing Trends in Japanese Picture Books Since the Tohoku Earthquake
by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM & Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District, Tucson AZ “March 11th, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake takes place in Tohoku area including Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi, 231 miles northeast of Tokyo at a depth of 15.2 miles. The earthquake causes a tsunami with 30-foot waves […]
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New Trends in Transnational Asian Children’s Books
By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District A couple of weeks ago, I (Yoo Kyung) celebrated a student’s cross-departmental achievement. At the dinner in honor of this achievement, the strawberry ice cream prompted those at my table to share their “favorite” things. With my reputation as a […]
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New Trends in Transnational Korean Children’s Books
By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District Most of the stories of Korean-Americans and Korean immigrants are products of the ’90s and 2000s. Ae-Kyung’s Dream (1988) by Min Paek is the only picture book of a Korean immigrant child’s story published in the 1980s. Picture books and […]
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New Trends in Transnational Japanese Children’s Books
By Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District, and Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico This week we discuss newly published children’s literature in the U.S. about Japanese and Japanese-American people in global contexts. Three patterns emerge when we consider the new trends in transnational Japanese children’s books: 1) little-known historical events between Japan and […]
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New Transnational Authors of Children’s Books
By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District This week, we discuss new patterns in portraying additional U.S. Asian groups in books by new transnational authors. Like books about Korean and Japanese people and cultures, we observed new themes and perspectives that differ from previous Asian-American books in […]
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Transnational Authors’ Cultural Backgrounds and Further Reading
By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District Throughout this past month we have looked at trends in transnational Asian children’s books. Further, we have discussed new transnational authors that expand cross-cultural peer relations in books and give voice to stories beyond traditional folklore. To wrap up the […]
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MTYT: A Diamond In the Desert
This August, Michele Ebersole and Yoo Kyung Sung give their take on “Rethinking conceptual otherness in history: Exploring untold histories in the U.S. and global communities.” They begin the discussion with the book A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. In the coming weeks, they also consider Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxua, Gaijin: […]
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MTYT: Bronze and Sunflower
This August, Michele Ebersole and Yoo Kyung Sung give their takes on “Rethinking conceptual otherness in history: Exploring untold histories in the U.S. and global communities.” They begin the discussion with A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. This week they consider Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxua. In the coming weeks, they will […]
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MTYT: Gaijin
Continuing the conversation around “Rethinking conceptual otherness in history: Exploring untold histories in the U.S. and global communities,” Michele Ebersole and Yoo Kyung Sung give their takes on Gaijin: American Prisoner of War by Matt Faulkner. They began the discussion with A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice and Bronze and Sunflower by Cao […]
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MTYT: Lion Island
For this final conversation around “Rethinking conceptual otherness in history: Exploring untold histories in the U.S. and global communities,” Michele Ebersole and Yoo Kyung Sung give their takes on Lion Island: Cuba’s Warrior of Words by Margarita Engle. They began the discussion with A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice, Bronze and Sunflower by […]
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