Gillian McClure
The Land of the Dragon King
The Land of the Dragon King
The Land of the Dragon King and Other Korean Stories is a collection of nine of the best loved Korean tales. The author tells how the book came about:
‘I first visited South Korea in the 1990s to see my son who was working with a shipping company in Ulsan. At that time there weren’t many Europeans visiting South Korea. On my first day I took a bus to Pusan. Once the bus left Ulsan with its high-rise flats, I caught a glimpse of villages, rice fields and the hills beyond. It was a landscape I recognised from the Korean folk tales I was reading and I was inspired to go up into the hills sketching. I sketched traditional houses, some with blue roofs, a boy up a persimmon tree picking fruit, old women working in rice fields, and grassy burial mounds deep in the woods.
Later, I met up with a Korean editor and showed her my sketches. She encouraged me to illustrate this collection of Korean stories so that children everywhere would be introduced to this beautiful land and its magical tales.’
‘Stories without feet travel far, if told.’ – Korean proverb
Story and illustrations: Gillian McClure
U.K. Publisher: Frances Lincoln, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-84507-805-8
Reviews
What a find! This is an absolute treasure of a book, beautiful to look at, silky to the touch and a delight to read. It is a selection of traditional tales from Korea that will excite any reader and have them all fall in love with the magic of this faraway land.
School Librarian