Author-illustrator Hyewon Yum

Happy New Year's Eve! I am celebrating Watch. Connect. Read.'s birthday with Hyewon Yum. She dropped by to chat with me about Puddle, drawing, rainy days, picture books, and reading. I wrote the words in purple, and she wrote the words in black. Thank you, Hyewon! 

Puddle tells the story of the little boy’s rainy day. It’s rainy and the little boy can’t go outside. That’s terribly boring! What can he do? Well, he drew the rainy day with his mom and made a big PUDDLE!

The Boy and his mom is my little boy and me. When I had to stay home with him because of the rain (I don’t like getting wet so much) we were bored. We tried blocks, snacks and other tricks but nothing worked. So I started to draw, and he asked me draw this and that. We started to make a story.

He had an idea and it became alive on the paper with his imagination. He giggled and his face lit up when I drew grumpy daddy, mad mommy and the puddle! That became this book.

I think rainy days are no fun if you need to go somewhere. But with a cup of hot cocoa and the right music, it could be the best day for drawing and reading, which can lead you to a long nap!

If you visited my studio I’d be so embarrassed. (I’m working in the basement right next to the laundry room.) But I’d ask you to sit on my desk chair anyway. You would be a little uncomfortable and you might sneeze because of the stacks of papers and their dust friends. Then you would spin around from my desk, where there are bookcases filled with beautiful picture books.You won’t get bored then.

The Twins’ Blanket and The Twins’ Little Sister

are my childhood stories. I am a twin and I have a little sister. They are still my best friends and I have a trunkful of memories with them. Sometimes I can’t even tell it’s my story or my sisters’. I have to tell the stories about US.

Picture books are the best way I can tell my story.  My words are not enough, I need pictures. “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?”

Reading is my passion. I’m really lazy but still curious, I can travel and become somebody else on the couch or even in the bed.

Mr. Schu, you should have asked me what’s the next book? It’s A PIECE OF HOME from Candlewick. Jerri Watts wrote and I illustrated, but I feel like I wrote the story. The story is about a young boy who moved from Korea to West Virginia (I moved from Korea to Michigan 13 years ago). Love the story! It will come out in June, 2016.

Look for Puddle on March 8, 2016.