Description ★ A gift-like picture book for everyone, filled with the anticipation and excitement of a new beginning. The first day of a new year holds special meaning for everyone who greets it with a hopeful heart. For Zhaodi, who has waited all year for the Lunar New Year to arrive, welcoming the new year is especially meaningful. After going around to give New Year's greetings on the first day of the holiday, Zhaodi lights her lantern starting on the fifth day of the first lunar month and wanders through the village with her friends. Then, when the fifteenth day—the Lantern Festival—arrives, she reluctantly burns all the lanterns. This is because it is believed that if the lanterns are not burned, her uncle will suffer from an eye illness. So the children's lantern play in this story is not simply a game, but a symbol of the earnest wish that oneself and one's family will greet the coming year in good health. The way the New Year's festival concludes with the burning of the lanterns captures both the emptiness of an ending and the excitement for the coming spring, as well as the anticipation for the Lunar New Year that will come again next year. Zhaodi's journey—from excitement to longing, from longing to anticipation—and her joyful realization that every ending leads to a new beginning, offers readers a sense of hope and serves as nourishment for growth in the year ahead. ★ Selected as 2016 Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrator of the Year, artist Zhu Chengliang warmly portrays writer Wang Yage's childhood memories through rich, oil-painted illustrations infused with the sentiment of mainland China. "The lantern was a warm friend that brightened my childhood. Now my childhood feels as distant as the end of a road or the far side of a river, but the girl holding the lantern still remains in my heart. Through that still-living light of emotion, I often find myself looking back at who I am." —From the author's note— Writer Wang Yage considered the Lunar New Year so special that she described it as "the light that brightened my childhood." Zhaodi in the story, who eagerly awaits the New Year holiday and feels a sense of emptiness as it comes to an end, is a reflection of Wang Yage's own childhood self. Zhaodi feels a sense of loss as the long-anticipated festive atmosphere, which has been building since before the New Year, reaches its peak and comes to an end—but she soon realizes that this ending is not a final farewell, but a new goodbye that leads toward the coming spring. Illustrator Zhu Chengliang brings Wang Yage's memories to life through rich, oil-painted illustrations imbued with the sentiment of mainland China, brightly and warmly unfolding a world of childhood innocence that nurtures solid growth. His paintings, reminiscent of Impressionist works, blend a Western sensibility with the warmth of Chinese color, offering something fresh and new—one that will feel especially familiar and endearing to Korean readers who share a similar East Asian cultural heritage.