KPC3465-3468: Philately Week

Korea Post has issued commemorative stamps since 1973 when it began its designation of the annual Philately Week to promote stamp collections and promulgate stamp culture. Philately Week 2020 will last from November 20 to the end of December, and its commemorative stamps feature picture book images issued by selection through screening by the Korean Board on Books for Young People (KBBY) of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

Although the advent of the picture book market was relatively belated in South Korea due to the political and economic conditions, it has borne great fruit in 2020. Writer-illustrator Baek Hee-na has been named the winner of the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), the world`s largest children`s literature prize. Her winning of such a prestigious award is a historic feat for Korean picture books based on a group of writers who have honed their skills. It is also an auspicious sign that we can expect better results in the future. KBBY has selected four picture books for the commemorate stamps, assessing the literary and artistic value and the representative nature in the field of picture books. When you look at the stamps, you will be able to guess what those selected picture books are about.

Wave by Lee Suzy, who was one of the finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards, which is called the Little Nobel Prize, was selected as Best Children’s Books by The New York Times. The wide frame of the book captures a girl play with the wave on the beach. The title handwritten by the author adds a refreshing feeling. Wave shows a new possibility of a picture book as it expresses the playing process of the girl, fully using pictures and design factors without words. Selected as a CaldeNotts title, When Spring Comes to the DMZ by Lee Uk-bae was created as part of the joint project for peace by South Korea, China and Japan, containing the wish for a warm, peaceful time against the background of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the symbol of the division of the Korea Peninsula into South and North Korea. Described as “an artist who is renewing the picture book medium” by ALMA jury members in 2020, Baek Hee-na made a doll and a set and used the light delicately in order to express the warm heart in a marvelous way for the last scene of Magic Candies, where the hero Dongdong says ‘hi’ under the red maple to his friend who is far from him. In Dokkaebi and the Rice Cake Peddler, the writer Han Byung-ho tries to visualize Dokkaebi in Korean old tales into characters in the picture book and shows diverse forms of Dokkaebi born based on his various consideration about the Dokkaebi characters. The book title that is written horizontally by the book designer Jo Hyuk-joon is kept in the stamp to give the antique and original feeling.

Picture books are children’s first encounter with art and literature, which they cherish in their hearts for the rest of their life. We recommend you to indulge yourself in collecting stamps and reading books at the same time, appreciating the picture books of representative writers of Korea and their impressive scenes.