Once Upon an Hour

by Ann Yu-Kyung Choi, Soyeon Kim (Illustrator)

Overview

Yu-Rhee, a young Korean girl, wants to know how to tell time using a clock. Her mother tells her a tale from her childhood based on the traditional Korean practice of timekeeping, where the 12 animals of the zodiac are assigned to 2-hour sections of the 24-hour clock. Told from the point of view of a mountain, the story follows a child as they climb the mountainside in search of a plant to heal their ailing mother. The climb is steep, the path wild and the way difficult. The mountain watches the child struggle and calls on the animals that live on the mountainside to help the child, but as sunlight turns to moonlight, each animal claims to be too busy. Ultimately, Once Upon an Hour is a story about determination and teamwork that shows young readers the importance of helping others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459821279
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.75(w) x 10.75(h) x 0.38(d)
Lexile:	AD630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Ann Yu-Kyung Choi immigrated to Canada from South Korea in 1975. She attended the University of Toronto where she studied English, sociology and education. Her debut novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety (Simon & Schuster), was a 2016 Toronto Book Awards finalist and one of CBC Books’ 12 Best Canadian Debut Novels of 2016. Ann is an educator with the York Region District School Board in Ontario. She lives in Toronto with her family.

Soyeon Kim is a Toronto-based, Korean-born artist who specializes in fine sketching and painting techniques to create three-dimensional dioramas. She is a graduate of the Visual Arts and Education programs at York University and has illustrated a number of beautiful picture books including Sukaq and the Raven (Inhabit Media) and You Are Never Alone (Owlkids). Soyeon won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s award in 2013.

Editorial Reviews

The repetitive text here is soothing in cadence...Pleasing colours, and the winsome expressions on the face of the hopeful child make readers sympathetic to the situation.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Illustrations which are inexplicably special…The timeless and universal message of helping others will resonate with listeners of this story whether young or old. This book needs to be part of an elementary school library as well as pre-school and home libraries. By using animals who are active at different times of the day to teach the concept of time, this folktale is especially memorable as well as useful.

Must Read Literature

2020-05-17
Learning the order of the Korean zodiac signs becomes a bedtime story to help a little girl learn how to tell time.

Yu-Rhee, a young Korean girl, looks at the puzzling, round clock face, wondering how her mother knows it is time for bed. Mother tells her a story about a special group of animals and a compassionate mountain who plays an active role. The animals represent the 12 symbols of the zodiac. As the tale begins, an unnamed child struggles up a steep trail in search of the doraji plant to make a healing tea for their ill mother. Mountain takes pity on the child and asks the animals to help her. One by one, the animals give time-related excuses instead of providing assistance. “When the sun climbs the morning sky, I need to bask in its bright rays,” says Snake. Finally the animals do help, and the child achieves their goal. Each illustration is built from cut-out drawings and pieces of tissue paper that have been placed into dioramas for a striking, three-dimensional effect. Natural shadows and the lines that support each element provide texture and perspective. The link between each animal and their associated time is tenuous, however, needing stronger visual cues to help young readers learn timekeeping. Unfortunately, as the journey plays out, the child is not as active a character as the animals, and the pacing plods up and down the mountain.

A curious premise with captivating illustrations that unfortunately lacks excitement. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews

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