GENRE: **Diverse, Holiday
WORDS: 670
Query:
I would like to share with you my picture book, THE MAGIC OF MY HANBOK, complete at 670 words.
THE MAGIC OF MY HANBOK follows eight-year-old Hae-ji who misses her grandma extra one day. She puts on the hanbok her grandma gave her and is whisked away to a seol nal, or Korean New Year, gathering with her family. She reminisces on the joy and traditions of the day and enjoys time with her grandmother before heading back home, dreaming of this year’s seol nal to come.
THE MAGIC OF MY HANBOK will interest readers who enjoyed BRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR by Grace Lin and FESTIVAL OF COLORS by Surishtha and Kabir Sehgal.
I am from Waterford, Michigan. I am the author of the BEN LEE series, published by Capstone. Along with writing, I am also a middle school ELA teacher. I graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Elementary Education, a focus in English Language Arts, and a Teaching English as a Second Language endorsement.
Thank you for your consideration!
Excerpt:
My grandma gave me a hanbok when I turned 7, a lucky number in Korea.
It was green and pink and had beautiful flowers on the sleeves.
“Hae-ji, this is a special hanbok,” my grandma had said.
“If you miss me, remember this: When you put it on, you can see me again.”
I was missing grandma extra today, so I pulled the hanbok out of my closet.
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
I was inspired to write this story, because like Hae-ji, Korean New Year celebrations are such a big part of my childhood and identity. I also had a strong relationship with my grandmother, and one of my most prized possessions is the hanbok she gave me. Korean characters and traditions are heavily underrepresented in the children’s literature space, so I wanted to write a story that shared them in an accessible way.
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