General review for the “12th Nunnopi Child Award”
Various materials and techniques, and highly sophisticated ways for expression The general opinions of the panelists are that the number of works submitted has increased compared to previous years; a wide array of techniques has been adopted; and sophisticated ways of expression have been employed. In particular, the children’s verse category has gained momentum this year, receiving much praise from children’s literary writers from all across the nation as well as the applicants of the category. The works were chosen by going through the following process: Without a preliminary examination, the panelists divided and read the works separately. Afterwards, five outstanding works in the children’s verse category and two to three works in the fairy tale category were recommended by each panelist. Works that passed the first screening were reviewed by all the panelists and the final winning works were decided upon. In the children’s verse category, a total of 1,176 works were submitted by 85 applicants. The works that made it into the finals were 28 works by two persons, including the “Leaves eaten by insects (and 13 works)” and “Beautiful trees (and 14 works).” The works of the two people represent the two major tendencies in the Korean children’s verse sector. One tendency is involved with being subtle, feminine, bright, and expressing warmth; while the other is involved with demonstrating great interest in the issues of our lives and pursuing the meaning of a bright and upright life through self-reflection and deep thoughts. The merits or demerits of the works are certainly not evaluated based on the reasons why the creators made the works. They should be evaluated according to whether the intention of the creators effectively influences the readers. This subject was discussed for a long time while examining the children’s verses. The works under the “Leaves eaten by insects” category featured the outstanding skills and talents of the writer in that they showed how the writer thinks about children’s verse, adopted unique techniques in having these thoughts take form, and communicated the poetic direction that the writer is moving towards. The in-depth perspectives of the “Leaves eaten by insects” fully featured the writer’s aesthetic appreciation. On the other hand, the works under the “Beautiful trees” category were far from works that one can easily read with a rhythmic flow. Most required the reader to read slowly to understand the meaning of the works. In consideration of the generally accepted notion that the key virtues of children’s verses are to be intuitive, concise, and clear, the works under the “Beautiful trees” category could have been thought of as having potential issues. However, the success or failure of a work is ultimately determined by how much the work influences the minds of the readers. This could lead to discussions on whether the works would be appropriate for the target readers of children’s verses, but an agreement was reached to choose these works based on the judgment that the degree at which the works move the hearts of the readers is much greater than the other works. In the fairy tale category, a total of 126 works were submitted, including 89 short works (9 applicants) and 38 long works (37 applicants). There were many works that personified animals to talk about the issues of mankind in this era or to draw a fantasy world such as that of Harry Potter. There were also some works that gained attention that adopted science fiction techniques. All the works were highly evaluated for their attempts to find a new approach toward fairy tales. However, the problem was that outstanding technical skills were demonstrated, but the content was not of high quality. All the works were read twice. The works that were left at the end were the “Otter Dallae, and the crescent in the snow” and “The house of Jaepil in Ssangmun-dong.” The “Otter Dallae, and the crescent in the snow” talks about a general value of mankind ? love among family members ? through disputes among personified animals. The work features accurate descriptions of the ecological lives of animals as well as a strong storyline, which maintains a structure of conflict till the very end. “The house of Jaepil in Ssangmun-dong” talks about the lives of the poor in the city who become alienated during the process of industrialization in the 1970s. What was interesting about the work was that this period was reconstructed in a warm hearted way through the eyes of growing children. These two works were of high quality and showed the great potential of the writers. However, the “Otter Dallae, and the crescent in the snow” was chosen because it demonstrated a high level of creativity regarding the subject that was based on an in-depth observation of the world of animals, rather than the common subject of the poor. The work, “Star,” was also under consideration, but did not make it into the finals because the description techniques were not as mature as the attractive subject of criticizing civilization. The quality of the short works was much lower than that of the long works, and thus none of them made it into the finals. We ask for more devotion to the winners and more efforts to those who made it to the finals but did not win.
Panelists: Children’s verse category: Mun Sam-seok, Yu Gyeong-hwan
Fairy tale category: Kang Jeong-gyu, Kim Eun-sook Song Jae-chan, Jo Dae-hyun |