Meet the illustrator Suzy Lee from Korea

Image Source: Let's talk Picture Books

If you can hear something, it’s just the sounds of waves and seagulls and the voice of the inner child of your mind splashing in the sea. Every detail of the story comes from your mind, not from outside. The author starts the story, 

but it’s you who fill the gap and complete the story. Suzy Lee

This is the second time Suzy Lee has been nominated by KBBY (IBBY Korea) for the Hans Christian Andersen award. She is the author and illustrator of over twenty-five books. Check out her Facebook posts. Here is an interview with Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. You can read more about Suzy's books on her website. Suzy has a book in the IBBY Silent Book collection (2019). And in the 2013 collection too. 

Her five selected books are “검은 새” (The Black Bird), “파도야 놀자” (Wave), “선” (Line), all three books published by Chronicle Books and “동물원” (The Zoo, published by BIR) and “심청” (Shim Chung, published by Hintoki Press).

The deft pencil illustrations convey movement and emotion 

so effectively that words are superfluous. Kirkus Star Review

Watch this beautiful video of Lines made with music and sound effects

Watch this beautiful video made with music and sound effects

Mirror was published in 2003 and became the first of the Border Trilogy: Mirror (2003), Wave (2008) and Shadow (2010). All three wordless stories share the physical centre of the book, the binding, that acts as a border between fantasy and reality in the actual story. On one side of the page, we see a little girl, in a mirror, at the seaside, in a storage room and on the other side of the page we see her fantasy and imagination.

Simon and Schuster: Suzy Lee is the critically acclaimed illustrator and author of many books for children including Wave, which was awarded the Gold Medal for Original Art by the Society of Illustrators and was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Shadow, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book; and Open This Little Book, which was awarded the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Picture Book Honor Winner). She lives and works in Seoul, South Korea.

Here is a video from Chronicle Books where you see this amazing book

Here is an interview where Suzy talks in detail about her book Shadow

Here is an interview where Suzy talks about This Beautiful Day

Lee makes masterful drawing look deceptively simple, creating visual appeal 

for readers of all ages. Sublimely satisfying. Kirkus Star review

In this post I have shared some books illustrated and written by Suzy Lee because she has been nominated for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen award.  I have already explored:

David McKee UK

Piret Raud Estonia

Dubravka Kolanovic Croatia

Beatrice Alemagna Italy

Ryoji Arai Japan

Sidney Smith Canada

Tohby Riddle Australia