Description A story of a tiny grass bug who sips tea, sleeps, and dreams. A delightfully different new work from Ragazzi Award-winning author Seo Hyun A new picture book by author Seo Hyun has arrived. Known for the sweeping rhythm of Horang Tteokjip, which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award in the Comics category at the 2024 Bologna Children's Book Fair, the author now unveils a story with a wholly different mood. Even a single simple illustration of a tiny grass bug enjoying a cup of tea holds your gaze for a long while. This is a picture book that radiates a strange, peaceful energy—a pure and harmless world of grass bugs that you won't want to leave. Every night, a very, very tiny grass bug dreams of becoming human This picture book is bound using an exposed thread-stitch (Coptic) technique, a small book designed so that instead of a typical spine, only the grass-green thread is visible. In the center of the sturdy cover is a round hole about 3 cm wide. Peering through it, you meet the eyes of a very, very tiny grass bug just preparing its tea set for a cup of tea. Now let's step into the world where the grass bug lives. A tiny house clings to a tall blade of grass, with a small round window. Inside: a modest low table with a single teacup, and one small blanket. In this space where nothing much seems to happen and life continues simply and quietly, the grass bug begins, one day, to dream every single night of becoming human. This strange and unfamiliar dream experience sends a curiously thrilling ripple through the bug's otherwise uneventful days. The grass bug has a friend who listens to its dreams "I became a human in my dream." "Hmm, it really is too hot these days." The grass bug has a friend—a dung beetle. Together they share the red flesh of a watermelon given to them by a field mouse, talking about dreams. As the warm sunlight lingers, their conversation drifts on lazily, each little exchange adding a soft glow to the peaceful scenery. Watermelons, cucumbers, balloon flowers, green vines, butterflies, grasshoppers, and dung beetles—these were favorite subjects of the Joseon-era painter Sin Saimdang in her famous 'Chochungdo' (paintings of plants and insects). In this story, they become the vivid, three-dimensional world the grass bug inhabits. The author drew inspiration from these old paintings, imagining one small grass bug living within them and making it the hero of this tale. The grass bug becomes human in its dreams. Then one day, within a dream, it lifts up a potted plant that smells exactly like the grass it lives on—and there, it spots another grass bug, just like itself. The quietly flowing story suddenly fills with tension. One day, a person dreamed of becoming a bug When the flowerpot in the dream shatters, the story shifts pace dramatically. In a museum just about to close, someone who had dozed off while looking at a Chochungdo painting dreamed of becoming a bug. Dazed, they stumble out of the dark museum and dash into the rain that has just begun to fall. Was everything we've seen so far about the grass bug merely this person's dream? Or is this person, too, just part of a much larger dream being dreamed by the grass bug? Whose dream is the story in this book, really? The scenes grow more urgent, and the story grows larger and larger. A strange, gentle, and lovable world of plants, bugs, paintings, and dreams Most dreams are forgotten the moment we wake. But sometimes, a dream leaves such a vivid impression that we can't tell if it's night or day, or whether the dream was reality or reality was the dream. These strange experiences can feel like a relief simply because they were 'just a dream'—and yet somehow also leave us wistful for the very same reason. Readers who have journeyed alongside this lovable grass bug, its friend, and its peaceful little world may find themselves quietly rooting for one thing: that this must have been the grass bug's dream all along. Somehow, we don't want to let this tiny bug's world slip away like a fleeting dream. But then again—perhaps, somewhere out there in the universe, two coexisting worlds simply crossed paths for a moment, within a dream. Perhaps the world we live in isn't the only one that feels real and solid. This picture book gently folds up that vast idea and tucks it away inside the small, small world of a grass bug.