New Children’s Books for September 4

The latest children’s books include playful stories, imaginative poetry and guides for understanding adolescence.

In “The Snake Is Too Long!”, mice slide along a green line, rabbits use it as a skipping rope, and elephants and cats turn it into a swimming pool. The twist comes when readers discover that the line is actually a green snake. Junpei Fukunaga wrote and illustrated the book, translated by Jeon Gyeong-a, and published by Sigong Junior.

“Earth Will Be Destroyed” imagines what happens when large beans produce ever larger beans, possibly one day creating a bean bigger than Earth. It also asks what might happen when a truly huge bean and a truly tiny bean fall in love. Jeong Jin-ho wrote and illustrated the book, published by Borim.

“Modern and Contemporary History Through Women’s Eyes” brings overlooked women’s lives and roles into Korea’s turbulent modern history, from the opening of ports and colonial rule to liberation, war and dictatorship. Historian Choi Seong-hee wrote about figures including Empress Myeongseong, Sunheon Hwanggwi-bi and female students who joined the anti-Japanese movement.

Other selections include Kim Seong-jin’s poetry collection “Speaking in Earthly Terms,” which turns apples, caterpillars and phone screens into unexpected poetic forms, and “There Is a Separate Way to Talk with an Adolescent Child,” by Seoul National University Hospital psychiatrist Hong Soon-beom. The latter explains how children and middle-school students can interpret the same parental instruction differently as abstract and conceptual thinking develops.