Not just for kids: Author Lee Suzy touts benefits of picture books for all readers

The school-age population may be declining, but Lee Suzy, a Hans Christian Andersen Award laureate, sees that as an opportunity to "create a culture where everyone reads picture books."

Author Lee Suzy talks to the press during the Busan International Children's Books Fair at Bexco, Busan, on Thursday. [KOREA PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION]

The school-age population may be declining, but author Lee Suzy, a Hans Christian Andersen Award laureate, sees that as an opportunity to "create a culture where everyone, regardless of age, reads picture books."

"It is why events like the Busan International Children's Book Fair [BICBF] are great, because it creates a space for that," she told the press during the fair at Bexco, Busan, on Thursday.

BICBF also comes at an opportune time, when the adult readership of picture books is growing enormously. "Picture books deal with much more diverse topics these days, and some are even written for adults," she said.

But even with the aging readership of her books, Lee will always write for children. "I don't try to define what it means to be children, though, or put them in a box."

Her books “Wave” (2009) and “Shadow” (2010) were included on the New York Times list of Best Illustrated Children’s Books; “The Yulu Linen" (2020), co-written with Chinese author Cao Wenxuan, received the Bologna-Ragazzi Award in 2020; and “Alice in Wonderland” (2015), inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865), is part of the Tate Modern’s book collection. She is also the first Korean to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award for lifetime achievement in illustrating children's books in 2022.

At BICBF, she was glad to meet some of her adult readers, recalling her encounter with a fan who said that she had taken her daughter out of school so that they could both meet Lee today. "I told them that they were awesome," she said with a smile.

She gave a keynote speech at the fair earlier in the day titled "The Wide Rainbow of Children." It focused on her use of color in her works.

"Images tell a story in picture books — not words, and color is a tool that I use in my images to tell stories," she said. "The proactive way of deciphering through the colors and images makes reading picture books uniquely fun."

Lee also touched upon the growing global appeal of Korean children's books, saying that there is a "huge surge of interest."

She commonly hears the local scene being described by foreigners as "dynamic." "Korea doesn't have a very long history with children's books, so there seems to be comparatively fewer rules and more room for authors to explore," she said. "I'm incredibly proud."

She did, however, state the need for a more profitable structure for local authors. She became particularly interested in the issue when her book "Danced Away" was recently released as an NFT, which allowed her a share of the profit whenever the NFT was sold. "I initially decided to try the NFT because I was curious about what it would be like for a traditional book to enter a digital world," but understanding its system of profitability "made me think about our profession's future." Lee added that she would also like to see policies like public lending rights at libraries come to fruition.

"I can think of two, maybe three, Korean authors who make a living out of just writing picture books, and it would be great if the industry's creators were supported better policy-wise."

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]