Description Winner of the 2nd Anthony Browne New Author Award A picture book that showcases clever planning and design sense, turning individual Hangul letters into a shape-matching game! - From the recommendation by judges Anthony Browne and Hannah Bartholin "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ" is the winning entry of the 2nd Anthony Browne New Author Award. This project, a collaboration between world-renowned master Anthony Browne and Hyeonbooks to discover talented picture book creators, got off to a wonderful start last year with author Kim Seul-gi's "One Strawberry." This year's 2nd competition selected three winning works in total, and following "Jungle Bear" published in June and "Who Am I?" published in September, "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ" is now released as the final title. "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ" is an interactive play-book that helps children learn ㄱㄴㄷ (the Korean alphabet) by playing hide-and-seek with animals through holes cut into the pages. Playing Hide-and-Seek Through ㄱㄴㄷ-Shaped Holes Giraffe's ㄱ (giyeok), butterfly's ㄴ (nieun), squirrel's ㄷ (digeut)... Most books that teach ㄱㄴㄷ pair consonants with words that begin with those letters. This is because it's much easier for a child to recognize the letter 'ㄱ' through a familiar animal like a 'giraffe' than to simply memorize the name and sound of the letter ㄱ. The problem is that by the time a child gets through giraffe's ㄱ, butterfly's ㄴ, and squirrel's ㄷ, they've already realized they're not just looking at a picture book but studying Hangul, and boredom sets in. "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ" is the result of careful thought about how to help children embrace ㄱㄴㄷ as an enjoyable game rather than a lesson. When you open the book, the first image you see is a yellow background with mottled brown patterns. Shifting your gaze to the right, you see a black hole in the shape of ㄱ, along with a hint about the animal you need to find. When you turn the page after reading 'You are tall with a long neck...', the ㄱ-shaped hole combines with the pattern from the previous page to reveal an adorable giraffe. Since the featured animals are familiar to children and their distinctive features are clearly shown in the illustrations, it's not difficult to guess which animal is hiding. Even though children already know which animal is hiding, they get curious when they hear the hint, turn the page, and check the hidden animal through the hole—embracing this repetitive process as an enjoyable game. Learning ㄱㄴㄷ along the way becomes a secondary result gained after many rounds of joyful play. Getting Familiar with Letters Through Touch The most striking feature of "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ" is the holes cut in the shape of individual letters. When a hole appears on the right-hand page, the black background behind it clearly reveals the ㄱㄴㄷ letter shape, but when it appears on the left-hand page, it hides within the various animal patterns behind it. Children become intrigued by how the picture changes because of the hole, and naturally reach out to touch it with their hands. As recommended by competition judges Anthony Browne and Hannah Bartholin, the educational value of this book lies in the fact that 'children can recognize letters by touching them through the holes.' You can read the book from beginning to end in order, but it's just as good to pick out scenes featuring animals or pictures your child especially likes. There's no need to learn ㄱㄴㄷ in strict order, and it's perfectly fine if your child doesn't pronounce ㄱ exactly as [giyeok]. What matters more is taking time to look closely at the pictures and enjoying playful discovery through the holes. Once your child has had enough fun playing and shows interest in the letters themselves, that's the perfect time to teach them—there's no rush. A Smart Hangul Picture Book Planned by an Elementary School Teacher Author and illustrator Kim Jae-young, who wrote and illustrated "Hide and Seek ㄱㄴㄷ," is an elementary school teacher who majored in art education. The author felt saddened by the reality that, due to the English education craze, children are becoming more familiar with English than with Hangul. Out of this concern, while pondering how to naturally convey the beautiful forms of Hangul to children, the author came up with the idea of pairing animals whose shapes resemble individual Hangul letters. In addition, beyond animals whose names begin with each letter, related words are hidden throughout the illustrations, giving children the joy of finding them as if playing hide-and-seek. For example, in the owl's ㅂ (bieup) scene, the owl's eyes are drawn spinning 'round and round (bingeul-bingeul)'—another word starting with ㅂ, chosen to add...