Description Picking fights with hardworking ants, searching the playground for million-year-old fossils, dreaming up a kind robot teacher, and marching off to sell his teacher because of a craving for Vita 300 soda—have you ever met a troublemaker more delightfully odd than this? 【Interview with Song Eon, Author of Potbelly Kim's Adventure】 *Is Potbelly Kim based on a real student you met at school? He's a truly special and remarkable student. I've been teaching for over 20 years, and meeting 'Potbelly Kim' feels like one of the greatest strokes of luck I've had as a children's author. I doubt I'll meet another student quite like him in the next ten years. *You've written stories about many different children before, like Graduation Congratulations, Song Eon Elementary School and Kim Gucheon-gubaek-i. Was there a particular reason you decided to write 'Potbelly Kim' as a five-book series? Our society—and adults in general—seem determined to raise children in ways that aren't truly childlike. I believe that's the root cause of so much unhappiness among kids today. In this frustrating and often stifling world, Potbelly Kim is a character who lives out the truest essence of childhood, without holding anything back. He was such a wonderfully unique child that even five books could barely contain all his fresh adventures. I hope that children everywhere who read Potbelly Kim's Adventure will rediscover the spirit of adventure that lies dormant within their own hearts. *Why did you choose to pair the word 'adventure' with stories set in school? In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn set off on a raft down the Mississippi River. I wondered how convincing it would be if, in today's world, Potbelly Kim set off on a raft down the Han River toward the West Sea. But then I realized that if a child can look beyond a frustrating reality to see a new world—and keeps working to make that new world real—then that child's life is itself an adventure. At its core, childhood innocence seeks freedom. And isn't freedom just another name for adventure? *Adults often label children like Potbelly Kim, who struggle to adapt to school, as 'problem children' or 'maladjusted.' What's your view on so-called problem children? In my experience, there's no such thing as a problem child—only adults who create them. Seeing a mischievous child as a 'problem' is simply a flawed adult perspective. Mischievous, playful children are exactly the ones whose sense of childhood wonder is most alive. My sincere hope is that adults who see themselves as having 'problems' might read stories full of childlike spirit and find their own answers. *What's the class motto in your classroom? The very idea of a 'class motto' feels a bit stiff to me, but if I had to share something close to one, it would be: 'Kids, study a little, but play a lot. That's how a new world comes to be.' *Is there a character in your stories who resembles you as a child? Not really. As a child, I was introverted, passive, and often lost in thought. Honestly, I disliked that kind of child. I wouldn't even want to put a character like that in my stories—he was, frankly, a rather dull and unhappy kid. 【About This Book】 ■ Even More Outrageous Than Little Nicholas Into a school as calm and peaceful as a quiet fish tank comes Potbelly Kim. He skips his boring classes to play outside all day, only to show up right at lunchtime with his mouth wide open, begging his teacher for 'just one bite,' then pestering her for a sip of Vita 300 soda to wash it down. Among all the classroom objects, he declares that the old broom-teacher is the most 'broken' one of all. Potbelly Kim's wildly unpredictable antics stir up the fish tank's calm in an instant. To teachers and classmates alike, he seems like someone who makes them wonder, 'How can a kid like this even exist?' But Potbelly Kim's outrageousness—outdoing even that of the famously mischievous Little Nicholas—begins to ripple outward like the flutter of a butterfly's wings across still water. Even when Potbelly Kim isn't around, his mischievous spirit somehow makes its way into the classroom through the other children. Kids who once watched him warily out of the corner of their eyes now find themselves clapping, marveling, and even imitating his delightful mischief.