Sometimes he seemed unimpressive because he was so timid, sometimes frustrating because he was so slow, and sometimes annoying because he was so oblivious—that was our dad. Imagining the day he never talked about made me smile quietly. — Noh In-kyung On a path that is sometimes frightening and sometimes dangerous, an elephant runs. Our fathers, too, run down roads just as frightening and dangerous, like this elephant. This picture book shows us, page by page, what our fathers do out in the world, and how bravely they run for their families. — Ahn Do-hyun (poet) The Road Home – What Happened to Papa Elephant? Mr. Elephant pedals his bicycle as fast as he can. On his head he balances a jar filled with blue drops of water—one hundred drops in all. With just three strands of hair fluttering by his ears, he rides on without looking back, but the road home is long. Thinking of the children waiting for him at home, his heart races, yet the path only grows harder. He grows exhausted under the blazing sun, passes through a pitch-black cave that seems to hide ghosts, and even suffers a fall from a cliff—each time, drops of water spill cruelly from the jar. He is chased by a swarm of bees, encounters a terrifying snake, and even has his precious water stolen. Each of these hardships, one after another, is foreshadowed in the scene just before it happens. And yet, when he meets a struggling colony of ants, Mr. Elephant still finds it in his heart to share his precious water. Home draws closer and closer, but the water in his jar keeps dwindling. Still, he never stops pedaling. Straining against the weight of his fear, which keeps pulling his trunk down, he lifts it high and keeps running, again and again. Because his children are waiting for him at home. Even though he's a clumsy, hapless fellow carrying a jar that keeps emptying out, he is still the father of four children. Still, Dad Keeps Running – Mr. Elephant's Name Is Tutti, Meaning 'Every' Dad At a glance, this Mr. Elephant is timid, a bit foolish, oblivious, slow, and even clumsy. His rich, unguarded expressions reveal his every emotion and thought in an instant, so anyone can recognize this the moment they see him. By any measure, he seems seriously unfit to be the father of four children. But what keeps this Mr. Elephant running is the very thing that makes him a father: his children. When the children, who waited for him with complete and unwavering trust, run to him calling out "Daddy!" with joy, he is finally able to hold out the jar filled with a hundred drops of water. The children will probably never imagine the single tear that Papa Elephant shed along the way. They won't know that this tear brought forth a stream of rain, ending a long drought. And it may be a long time before they come to understand the 'father's road' he traveled to find water during that drought. This Mr. Elephant's name is Tutti—meaning 'every' father. Drawn with natural warmth and gentle humor, this picture book about the good-hearted but hapless Mr. Elephant invites us to imagine what the men we call "Dad" are like in places where no one calls them that—and in the end, leaves us bowing our heads in gratitude. A Beautiful Picture and Story Built Piece by Piece in Pixels "Mr. Elephant and the 100 Drops of Water" is a rare pixel-art picture book, unlike anything seen in picture books published so far. Except for the main character, the elephant, and the bicycle he rides, every object in the book is made entirely of pixels. The shapes that make up these pixels vary widely—tiny dots, short lines, hollow squares, even startled faces and skulls. These sparkling, inventive pixels stack together to form trees, bushes, ants and bees, a tall giraffe, and cool sheets of rain. Pixels of varying density, size, and shape were carefully chosen to match the mood and situation of each scene. Each tiny square pixel is just 1 millimeter in size, and it takes more than 100 pixels stacked together just to complete a single small tree. Countless fragments gather and build up to form every single object, and every single scene.