Taeeun Yoo is a South Korean picture book author and illustrator who is active in the United States. Her first picture book, The Little Red Fish, won the Society of Illustrators’ 2007 Founder's Award,[1] and Only a Witch Can Fly (2009) was named a New York Times Best Picture Book[2] and won the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award in 2010.[3]

Taeeun Yoo
BornSeoul, South Korea
OccupationAuthor, illustrator
LanguageKorean, English
GenrePicture Books
Notable awardsEzra Jack Keats Book Award (2010)
Website
taeeunyoo.com

Life

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Yoo was born in Seoul, though later immigrated to the United States.[4]

She studied oriental painting at Hongik University.[4] After attended the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy,[5] she became fascinated with illustration, later receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts.[4][6]

Influenced by etcher Bruce Waldman during her graduate studies, Yoo worked on her first book,[7] visited several publishers to show her work, and regularly sent out advertising cards.[5] Thanks to such efforts, she was contacted by Dial Books for Young Readers after her graduation exhibition, and her thesis project, The Little Red Fish, was published in the United States in 2007, a year after her graduation.[5]

Career

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Yoo's first picture book, The Little Red Fish, was published in the United States and subsequently translated and published in South Korea, Australia, Japan, and Spain.[8][9][10][11] The book received the 2007 Founder's Award from the American Society of Illustrators.[1] In 2009, her picture book Only a Witch Can Fly, with text by Alison McGee, was named a New York Times Best Picture Book of 2010,[2] and won the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for New Illustrator in 2010.[3] Her 2015 book Strictly No Elephants has been translated into 13 languages and is heralded as a pitch-perfect book about inclusion.[12][13] Kitten and the Night Watchman was named a Best Picture Book of the Year by the Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly.[14][15][16] Other books she has written and illustrated include You Are a Lion! And Other Fun Yoga Poses and Love Makes a Garden Grow.

Style

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Yoo uses a variety of techniques for her work. Her first picture book, The Little Red Fish, was created using etching with aquatint. In The Little Red Fish, only the red fish and the red covers of the book are hand-colored. By 2009, Yoo progressed to using linoleum block prints to print images on paper with ink, and then drawing on it with pencil. She sometimes uses Photoshop to adjust the colors when finishing up.[17] She created Kitten and the Night Watchman (2018) entirely digitally. For When the Storm Comes (2020), she manipulated block print textures digitally, and drew pencil and charcoal lines on separate sheets of paper, which she then combined in Photoshop.[18] Regarding such changes in technique, Yoo has said, "It all depends on what is most effective and what is most fun for me to work with."[19]

Awards and honors

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Books written

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The Little Red Fish won the 2007 Society of Illustrators' Founder's Award.[1]

Books illustrated

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Two of the books Yoo illustrated are Junior Library Guild selections: Round (2017)[20] and Kitten and the Night Watchman (2019).[21] Two books have been included on CCBC Choices lists: Hands Say Love (2015)[22] and Round (2018).[20]

In 2008, Time included Shirin Bridges's The Umbrella Queen on their list of the top ten children's books of the year.[23] The following year, The New York Times named Alison McGhee's Only a Witch Can Fly one of the year's best children's books;[2] Bank Street College of Education included it on their 2010 list.[24] The same year, McGhee's So Many Days was a Kids' Indie Next List pick.[25] In 2014, The New York Times named Polly Kanevsky's Here Is the Baby one of the top ten best illustrated children's books of the year.[26][27][28] In 2017, Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal named Joyce Sidman's Round one of the best picture books of the year.[20]

Awards for Yoo's illustrations
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2007 The Little Red Fish Society of Illustrators' Founder's Award Winner [1]
2010 Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for Illustrator Winner [3][29]
2016 Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev Charlotte Huck Award Honor [30]
2018 Round by Joyce Sidman Charlotte Zolotow Award Commended [31]

Works

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As author and illustrator

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  • The Little Red Fish (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2007, ISBN 978-0803731455)
  • You Are a Lion! And Other Fun Yoga Poses (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0399256028)
  • Love Makes a Garden Grow (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2023, ISBN 978-1534442863)

As illustrator

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  • A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, written by Madeleine L’Engle (Square Fish, 2007)
  • The Umbrella Queen, written by Shirin Bridges (Greenwillow Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0060750404)
  • Only a Witch Can Fly, written by Alison McGhee (Feiwel & Friends, 2009, ISBN 978-0312375034)
  • So Many Days, written by Alison McGhee (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010, ISBN 978-1416958574 )
  • The Austin Family Chronicles, written by Madeleine L’Engle (Square Fish, 2011)
  • Tua and the Elephant, written by R. P. Harris (Chronicle Books, 2012, ISBN 978-1452127033)
  • Hands Say Love, written by George Shannon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2014, ISBN 978-0316084796)
  • Here Is the Baby, written by Polly Kanevsky (Schwartz & Wade, 2014, ISBN 978-0375867316)
  • Strictly No Elephants, written by Lisa Mantchev (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1481416474)
  • Round, written by Joyce Sidman (Clarion Books, 2017, ISBN 978-0544387614)
  • Kitten and the Night Watchman, written by John Sullivan (Simon & Schuster/Paula. Wiseman Books, 2018, ISBN 978-1534480421)
  • When the Storm Comes, written by Linda Ashman (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020, ISBN 978-0399546099)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "About". Taeeun Yoo. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2009". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "2010 Ezra Jack Keats Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature to Be Presented to Author Tonya Hegamin and Illustrator Taeeun Yoo at NYPL Ceremony on April 28". The New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "Yoo, Taeeun". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Taeeun Yoo". Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  6. ^ Saxon, Antonia (15 May 2014). "Q & A with Lauren Castillo". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  7. ^ "Taeeun Yoo". Taeeun Yoo. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  8. ^ "리브피아모바일". m.libpia.com. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  9. ^ Yoo, Taeeun (2008). The little red fish. Camberwell , Vic: Penguin Group (Australia). ISBN 978-0-670-07235-4.
  10. ^ "The Little Red Fish". 紀伊國屋書店ウェブストア|オンライン書店|本、雑誌の通販、電子書籍ストア (in Japanese). Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  11. ^ "El pez rojo (Spanish Edition) - Yoo, Taeeun: 9788415250043 - AbeBooks". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  12. ^ Mantchev, Lisa (27 October 2015). Strictly No Elephants. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4814-1647-4.
  13. ^ Strictly No Elephants. 27 October 2015. ISBN 978-1-4814-1647-4.
  14. ^ Globe, The Boston. "Best 2018 books for children". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Best Picture Books of 2018 From Kirkus Reviews – Children's Book Council". 19 November 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Publishers Weekly Best Children's and YA Books 2018 – Children's Book Council". 26 October 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  17. ^ "Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast » Blog Archive » Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Taeeun Yoo". Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  18. ^ Ashman, Linda (26 May 2020). "Taeeun Yoo chats about WHEN THE STORM COMES (plus Giveaway!)". Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Let's Talk Illustrators #88: Taeeun Yoo". Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  20. ^ a b c "Round by Joyce Sidman". Junior Library Guild. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  21. ^ "Kitten and the Night Watchman by John Sullivan". Junior Library Guild. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  22. ^ Townsend, Emily McKnight; Schliesman, Megan; Lindgren, Merri V.; Horning, Kathleen T. (March 2015). CCBC Choices 2015. p. 59. Archived from the original on 26 June 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  23. ^ "The Top 10 Everything of 2008". TIME. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  24. ^ "Under Fives" (PDF). Bank Street College of Education. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  25. ^ "The Spring 2010 Children's Indie Next List". American Booksellers Association. 10 February 2010. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  26. ^ Rhoades Ha, Danielle (30 October 2014). "The New York Times Book Review Reveals 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2014". The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  27. ^ "New York Times Best Illustrated Books of 2014". Shelf Awareness. 31 October 2014. Archived from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  28. ^ "New York Times Best Illustrated Awards Announced". [Publishers Weekly]]. 30 October 2014. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  29. ^ "Awards: Ezra Jack Keats Book Winners; Hayek Book Finalists". Shelf Awareness. 22 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  30. ^ "Charlotte Huck Award (Fiction for Children)". National Council of Teachers of English. Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  31. ^ Schliesman, Megan (10 January 2018). "CCBlogC: Bao Phi Wins 2018 Charlotte Zolotow Award". CCBlogC. Archived from the original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.