[책의 향기]Raising you, who is a little special, is raising me.

◇Baby trees/Written by Choi Jeong-eun, illustrated by Park Gyeong-min/34 pages, 16,800 won, Green Tangerine
◇My beloved niece/Written by Park Hyun-jung/308 pages, 19,000 won, Carpenter Bookstore

Two books depicting the emotions felt while raising a child were published around the same time. One volume was written and drawn by an aunt who was caring for her nephew who became disabled due to a medical accident. The other book is a story about a mother raising twins, drawn by an artist with developmental disabilities.

‘My Lovely Nephew’ stirs hearts from the story of an aunt who decides to learn drawing for her nephew. In response to the instructor’s question, “What do you want to draw?” the aunt answered, “I want to draw my nephew,” and then burst into tears. After that, I started taking pictures of my nephew every week.

In the picture, the nephew drinks milk with a string attached to his nose. It is said that he suffered brain damage due to poor oxygen delivery while in the stomach. They live their daily lives with medical devices such as oxygen saturation meters and suction devices as well as nasal bridges attached. As soon as the child was born, he was taken straight to the pediatric intensive care unit, putting the family at a loss, but he endured various difficult treatments and grew into a precious being. The book contains a self-portrait observing my nephew’s growth process and ‘me’ in the meantime.

The aunt taking care of her nephew heard someone say, ‘Now live your life,’ or ask how her nephew was doing and ask, “How has it improved? say? Eat? When asked, “Walk?” he said he felt at a loss because he couldn’t find an appropriate answer. This is because of complex circumstances and emotions that are difficult to understand unless you are a party to it. As the aunt reveals her true feelings on drawing paper, she realizes that “taking care of my nephew was actually taking care of me.” This is why I call ‘My Lovely Nephew’ a “mutual growth story.”

In that sense, ‘Baby Trees’ can be said to be another period of mutually beneficial growth. A writer with developmental disabilities wove the stories of two mothers living in Yeongdeungpo into one fictional story and turned it into a picture book. It is said that this project started from ‘We will turn your Yeongdeungpo into a picture book’ in which local residents participated.

The picture book tells the story of giving birth to and raising twins, the feeling of ‘hugging one child and looking at the other with one eye’, the experience of sometimes feeling hateful towards children who do not understand how you feel, and the proud feeling you get when you see your child growing up so much. etc. are included. These are moments that anyone who has raised a child can relate to. The artist, who has a developmental disability, first draws these scenes with lines and then colors each area to his heart’s content with crayons. In both books, the warmth that fills each other’s shortcomings is deeply ingrained page by page.

the scent of a book >

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Reporter Kim Min [email protected]

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