Description: A Walk Around Our Neighborhood radiates the warmth of a community living life together. Life in the city grows more and more hectic, and many of us live without even knowing who lives just beyond our wall or fence. Amid this, there's a growing concern that children, too, are becoming indifferent to the people around them—more self-centered and disconnected. But no matter how much society advances or how convenient life becomes, none of us can truly live alone. In the end, we must ask ourselves how we can live together in a healthier, more meaningful way. With that in mind, it's important to give children the chance to notice the people they share their world with and to look at them with warmth and kindness. A Walk Around Our Neighborhood tells the story of a 'neighborhood' and the people who live there. For children, this 'neighborhood' is a very real, everyday space—a place where they eat, sleep, and breathe, as well as a playground where they run and explore. The same is true for adults. This neighborhood is a precious home for Jun-gu's family. It's a place of business for the kind lady who runs Mom's Hands Restaurant, and a vital workplace for Grandma Soon-i, who collects discarded paper. It's an artistic space for the college students creating public art, and a cozy resting spot where grandmothers gather to chat. In this book, the neighborhood is an irreplaceable space in everyone's life. It may not be flashy or polished, precise or tidy—but within it, children learn to observe their neighbors' lives, care about one another, and share stories together. In doing so, they grow into people who understand and cherish what it means to live together. A Neighborhood Journey Following a Paper Airplane A Walk Around Our Neighborhood has no single main character. Jun-gu, Hyeon-seo, grandmothers, the restaurant owner, students, a cat, and even a single sheet of calendar paper—they are all the heroes of this story. A sheet of paper leaves Jun-gu's house as a box lid, delivered along with vegetables to the restaurant owner. From there, it's passed along to Grandma Soon-i, who collects wastepaper. Next, it falls in front of the students making public art, and becomes a toy for a stray cat. Eventually, it lands by chance in front of Hyeon-seo, who is playing with dolls. Meeting Hyeon-seo's childlike imagination, the calendar paper transforms into a big paper airplane. Hyeon-seo flies it with all her might from the park at the top of the neighborhood hill. After its journey around the neighborhood, the paper airplane finally makes its way back to Jun-gu—though he never learns where it came from. This is exactly how people really live in a neighborhood. Though we may not always recognize one another, we are all intertwined, living our lives together. If a neighborhood is like a big, colorful carpet, then the people living within it are the weft and warp threads woven together to form it. People face each other in narrow alleyways, share conversations, sometimes argue and then make up—weaving the threads of daily life. Each individual life, woven together within a shared community, becomes the story of the neighborhood itself. A Hide-and-Seek Adventure: Discovering Hidden Treasures in A Walk Around Our Neighborhood For many children today, the neighborhood they know best might be an apartment complex—where homes and shops are neatly divided like matchboxes, arranged in tidy, orderly rows. But the neighborhood in A Walk Around Our Neighborhood may feel a little unfamiliar to city kids. In this book, houses cling closely together along a hillside, and small, old shops line the streets in a charmingly disorganized, unplanned way. But this is what our neighborhoods used to look like. Through this book, we wanted to show children a maze-like, bustling neighborhood and the many different people whose lives intertwine within it. The vivid colors, bold lines, and uniquely expressive characters bring the neighborhood to life as an even richer, more vibrant space. In every single scene, the people seem to move and breathe—you can almost hear the calls of market vendors, the laughter of children, and the chatter of grandmothers.