Dam – Winner of the 2015 Bologna Ragazzi Prize (Excellence in Fiction)

Description

A dam story that hugs our hearts

A friend who holds my hand tightly
“It’s a hide-and-seek playground. A playful text. “Remipa Remipa Singing Fingers.”
When the child came home from school, he would squat against the alley wall and throw a ball. If you walk on a cracked, peeling wall with five fingers, the wall will make the sound of Remi-pa-Remi-pa. When the children leave their bags at home and come together one by one, they play games like hide and seek, rubber bands, and pile driving.
For children, it is a wall that is neither too high nor too low, and with a little effort they can easily jump over it. Dam, who used to share house with house, mine and yours, suddenly becomes a friend who protects the children and plays with them. When we played with the wall as our friend, there were many times when the sun would set and the sky beyond the mountain would be blue. Around that time, I could hear the sound of my name being called and shouting to eat! Dam, who was playing with the children, happily sends them home. Sogdakdakdakdakdakdakdakdakdakdakdamdak I don't think I was lonely while talking with my family inside the house. I would have greeted the next morning with that story in my arms and the stars in my arms.

Short text, simple pictures, long story
Author Ji Kyung-ae’s “Dam” is a picture book that is very easy to read. The pictures are simple enough to be skipped over at a glance. However, the author spent quite a long time, five full years, to create this picture book.

Not only because it was my first picture book, but also because there were so many stories I wanted to include in this book. It is said that recalling memories of the author's childhood was not usually difficult. Moreover, it was difficult to write briefly and easily. I wanted the painting to be vague and give the feeling of touching a wall, so I repeated the process of applying acrylic paint and stamping it several times. I wanted to draw a cat in ink, so I enlisted the help of an artist who raises cats to express it freely and in a way that goes well with other paintings. It is also fun to follow the cat and create a story with your child. Although there is no story about a cat, a cat opens the first chapter of this book. So this book is also an alley cat book.

A dream that embraces a child's heart like a wall that hugs the stars all night long
Author Ji Kyung-ae is a mother of an elementary school son and an older daughter. Since she lives in an apartment, she often feels sorry for her children. She said that when the author was young, she had children in her village, and she had her own alley and wall so she could easily get outside and play. But now, tall apartments have been built in place of the old walls. She pushed aside the wall of the beautiful playground and sat there without getting hurt or covered in dirt. When young children go to kindergarten, they read books at home or play with factory-made toys. When elementary school students finish school, they walk around the academy, gather together to wander around the apartment complex, or watch television at home.

Author Ji Kyung-ae says that this book, “Dam,” was not published with the hope that the world would return to the past. You can't do that anymore. Now, in a world where low walls have disappeared and taller walls have risen, just as the old fences hugged our children's hearts, it is no longer the old days when we played here and there in villages and alleys without worries, so it contains the hope that our children will be raised with free and open hearts. Yes. When the children raised like that grow up, won't our children be able to embrace the world in peace, just as Dam hugged the stars all night long?