Dog poop under the alley wall. Everyone says, "Ew, that's dirty," and walks away. Sometimes, they tease and scold it for being dirty. The dog poop thinks it is a dirty and unnecessary existence and sheds tears.
One rainy spring day, the dog poop hears the story of a dandelion sprout and realizes that it is an essential being for the dandelion. So, with a joyful heart, the dog poop seeps into the dandelion's roots and blooms into a beautiful flower. The dog poop, which seemed useless in the world, has transformed into something precious for someone.
The words of author Jeong Jeong-saeng and the beautiful illustrations by Jeong Seung-gak add to the emotion of the original work. This book teaches the value of life and nature through the story of how something that seems utterly useless, like dog poop, becomes valuable fertilizer for a dandelion flower. This principle applies to people as well. When one thinks they are useless in this world, they may discover their own value and come to love themselves, feeling the preciousness of life.
Through the story of "Dog Poop," our children will learn to love nature and cherish people. Media Review
"Nothing is useless."
There is a saying that goes, "Even dog poop is of no use unless used as medicine." This means that no matter how insignificant something may seem, it always has its purpose. The children's book "Dog Poop" has received consistent love as well. Although it is a short piece, its warm affection for the marginalized touches both children and adults alike.
Dog poop left alone on the roadside after a dog has done its business. It is scolded by sparrows and chicks for smelling bad and is even ignored by farmers, leading it to ponder its own value.
However, the dandelion warmly embraces the despairing dog poop. The dog poop realizes that it is an essential being (nutrient) for the dandelion to bloom.
Especially, the warm text combined with Jeong Seung-gak's charming illustrations enhances the quality of this book.
"Dog Poop" is actually a work by author Jeong Jeong-saeng, who won the 'Christian Children's Literature Award' in 1969. Although it was included in several collections of fairy tales afterward, it did not receive much response. Then, by chance, Jeong witnessed a teacher reading "Dog Poop" to children as a storytelling session, prompting him to suggest its re-publication as a standalone book. This book, which Jeong simplified to suit children's perspectives, had also been forgotten for a long time before finally receiving recognition.
================ Dong-A Ilbo, Book Aroma, Reporter Hwang Tae-hoon, May 4, 2002. Hypothesis 1. 'A person's face resembles the work they do.' At least for Jeong Seung-gak (37), this hypothesis fits perfectly. With a round face and bright eyes, it is hard to guess his age until one gets close enough to notice the fine wrinkles around his eyes. What kind of work does he do? He is a 'children's book illustrator.'
Hypothesis 2. 'A person's face resembles their heart.' Looking at Jeong again, he is an adult who can draw the sound of children playing on a washboard onto paper. An adult who sees a child's appearance in dog poop. His 'childlike spirit' is finally completed in his heart. "To me, children just look round and dark-skinned. Kids with rosy cheeks, just out of the bath, are impossible to draw." Thus, even though they are all illustrations for children's stories, his work is very different from that of other adults.
Such qualities of his must have been innate. Otherwise, how could he have retained his childlike spirit until this age in a country where children are raised to think and act like adults from the time they enter kindergarten? However, he does not attribute it to his nature.
"I was the most typical product of the system. I also had no real opportunity to experience true childlike innocence. It was the children who returned my lost eyes to me." Since 1985, Jeong has been a member of the Korean National Art Association, participating in mural projects in demolition and impoverished areas. At that time, he believed that the paintings he created represented the hearts of the people.
Then, in the summer of 1987, he went to do mural work in the village of Haandan, Gyeonggi Province, which had suffered from flooding, and met the children there. When he asked the children to draw their experiences of the flood, they expressed their experiences vividly on paper. This was possible because they had been experiencing floods every year.
"It was shocking. And it was embarrassing." While someone who claims to be an artist struggles to visualize what to draw, the children were expressing their experiences astonishingly realistically.
From that moment, he began to learn to draw anew. The children became his art teachers. Over the past ten years, he has painted on neighborhood fences and school walls with hundreds of children. No, the children have transferred their true likenesses onto the walls, and Jeong merely instructed them to draw freely as they wished.
His interest in illustrating children's books also began from that time. The level of children's books in our country was pathetic. Most were just foreign books with the text changed to Korean. Even the illustrations in our children's books were merely superficial. So, starting in 1988, he began to illustrate fairy tales directly. It was not a job he started with a publishing contract. He just dove in, considering it a way to pay tuition for the children.
However, this work was a laborious task of creating everything anew from the beginning. Above all, no one had paved the way before him. He tried various experiments. He drew with woodblock prints, made clay figures for sketches, and even tried thangka techniques. While others completed a book's illustrations in two weeks, he took a year to finish.
But these illustrations set new milestones for children's book publishing in our country. Books like "In the Country Where My Mother Lives," "The Mischievous Goblin," "The Little One from the Dark Land," and "Dog Poop" are all examples of that.
Last year, Jeong's family moved from Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, to a mountain village in Eomjeong-myeon, Chungbuk Province. It was because Jeong's income was not sufficient to maintain urban life, but the spacious studio in their rural home, which is being renovated for church use, along with a vegetable garden that provides food for the family and fields where children can play freely, turned out to be a greater bonus.
================ Hankyoreh Newspaper, September 25, 1998.