Ji Hyeon LeeRezensionen

This wonderful, whimsical book by JiHyeon Lee is a wordless picture book that perfectly illustrates the nature of anxiety and friendship for a highly sensitive little person. A lot of thought went into this delicate little book, and color is highly important! We begin at a crowded swimming pool rendered in soft black and white images, were our little hero is overwhelmed by the Sendak like mob of swimmers that quickly crowd the pool. Our brave hero eventually decides to dive in past the crowd where he is meets a like minded little swimmer and together they explore the depths of the poor, away from the noise, allowing their imaginations to soar! Quickly the images are rendered in full color as the pool becomes full of life with various sea creatures galore! Fans of Sendak, Pixar, Selznick, and Miyazaki will be charmed. And this is the perfect book to browse through with your anxious, and overwhelmed little one.


JiHyeon Lee is a treasure. I'll be on the look out for more of her work

A great story about imagination and bravery and friendship.

Ages 3-5 yrs old
No Awards

The action is easy to follow in this wordless picture book; color draws the eye to important figures, starting with the tiny bug on the title page (who has just dropped a key that a young boy picks up). Pencil gives way to colored pencil as the boy follows the bug and uses the key to open a spiderweb-covered door; he passes through and discovers a world peopled with unusual creatures who speak an unfamiliar language. At first the boy is frightened, but the creatures are friendly. This world is full of doors, and people come and go from all over; it's a happy world, full of picnics and even a wedding. When the boy (now in color, with rosy cheeks) waves goodbye, he leaves the door open and unlocked behind him.

See also: Beekle by Dan Santat, The Lost Book by Margarita Surnaite, Chirri & Chirra by Kaya Doi, Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis, Journey by Aaron Becker

beautiful, wordless, yet complex story of adventure and friendship

This wordless picture book with breathtaking illustrations contrasts stillness and activity, silence and noise, color and white, through the comparison of different people in the pool. It surrounds the theme of creativity and imagination. This is a great book for children of all ages.

This book was very interesting for me to read considering this is the first wordless picture book that I remember reading. It allowed a friendship to develop without pictures and allows readers to use their imagination to develop a story line. This is a child's dream and I feel as though this book will teach children a lot.

This is a wordless picture book about a boy entering into a fantasy world. It's good for kids who want to have a creative 'read' where they fill in the blanks. However, it would not work for a storytime or readaloud. The illustrations are of a lovely ethereal style. Personally, there are other wordless books I prefer though.

A breathtaking story about how if open up our heart, aka a door, there are endless possibilities to what will happen. There are no words, but they aren't needed, the illustrations speak so clearly. The slightest line drawn with a pencil you can create an entire world of imagination. I can not believe this book was not awarded an illustration honor, it conveys such a strong message to children that it does not matter where you come from or what you look like.

Korean illustrator JiHyeon Lee, who made her picture-book debut with the wordless Pool, returns to the form in this second title, also wordless. A young boy, noticing an odd and colorful insect, follows its flight and is led to a door, which he proceeds to open. On the other side he finds himself in a magical world, one populated with odd and fantastical creatures, whose speech he cannot understand. After his initial alarm at the strangeness of everything, the boy overcomes his fear, is befriended by these others, and is invited to a wonderful wedding party...

Although Pool has been on my to-read shelf since it was first released, I never seem to have gotten around to it, despite the accolades it won. Having now perused and greatly enjoyed Door, I will definitely have to rectify that! This was a lovely book, one that ably conveys, through the artwork, the magical story unfolding. There is a soft quality to Lee's illustrations that is very appealing, and many wonderful little details to examine. The visuals are quite simple, at first, with lots of blank space on the page, but they get progressively more complex as the story unfolds, mirroring the boy's journey. I loved the use of color here, and what I assume to be the pencil work, with shading and hatching. All in all, Door was a lovely wordless picture-book, one that I would recommend to admirers of the form.

This story, told through illustrations, was fantastic! We start off by seeing our main character finding a mysterious key. He is then seen wondering around his world with ordinary people around him who look miserable and are colored in plain black and white. The main character eventually finds a mysterious door in which he uses his key to open, and he walks through the door revealing a new world filled with imaginative creatures in varieties of color. At first these creatures appear isolated in a white background, but as the main character interacts with them more, we see the white space filled with grass, trees, and many other kinds of doors. The main character befriends all of these creatures and ends up at a very happy wedding celebration. My favorite part was the ending. As the main character is leaving this newly found world, he leaves the mysteriously magical door open and unlocked for the future. I would like to think that the main character will return to this wonderful place when his world starts to feel grey again. The concept of this story reminded me of the Narnia series a bit too much, but I still felt it was a wonderfully necessary book.

This is a wordless picture book that would be great for all ages. Two children meet at a pool and dive deeper into their friendship (literally and metaphorically) to avoid the crowds. The illustrations are beautifully detailed and done in colored pencils and oil pastels. As the action grows, so do the colors.

I think that this book could be fun for 'read aloud' as the students might be able to caption the images themselves, getting them involved creatively. The wordlessness of this book resembles the peaceful atmosphere of being underwater. Additionally I appreciate the illustrations of the imaginary elements at the bottom of the pool, because when I was young I used to always pretend to be a mermaid. I was also worried about large sea mammals being in the pool when swimming after dark.

This story is about two shy kids who both go to the pool and how when they are together, their imagination takes them to better places.

This book was just meh. The illustrations aren't really my style, and the story is not all that unique. Also, for the life of me, I cannot figure out what is going on in the last page of this book. That drives me a little bit crazy.
I picked it up because it is a beehive book award nominee this year. I can't figure that out out either. I don't understand why this book stood out to anyone. I would love to be enlightened if anyone wants to put in their two cents.

I love the character design in "Pool." The bulky round dads, and moms in swimming caps and yelling kids and the dense pool full of people and floats and toys is so much fun to look at. everyone has great rolling eyes and huge wide open mouths that get across the loudness and chaos of a summertime public pool without any written sound at all. This busyness contrasts nicely with the large white pages containing quietly contemplative single figures, and the calm blue underwater magical world the kid protagonists encounter (with a soft furry whale!).

Pool is a wordless book with beautiful illustrations. It is about a boy who swims to the bottom of a very crowded pool and meets a girl. They discover tons of animal life at the bottom of the pool.

Summary: Told all in pictures, a boy goes to the pool to swim and it gets crowded with people. He dives in and underwater meets a girl. Together they explore the underwater world of creatures and adventures until it is time to leave.

Criteria- Critique of Genre: Picturebook, modern fantasy- The boy dives into the pool and finds a girl underwater, under all of the other people. They find an underwater world full of fish and plants and whales, and they play with the creatures. They stay under water for a long long time without breathing. No one notices that there is an entire underwater world of creatures underneath them as they swim a the top of the water.

Age: primary, intermediate

Media: colored pencils and oil pastels on paper

Summary: A boy takes a trip to the pool and finds more adventure than one might expect.

Review: An extremely visually stimulating book, this story lets the imagination run wild.

Craft Elements/Lesson Activities: If you could write this story in words, what would the book say?

JiHyoon Lee creates a vivid world of color beneath a black and white surface. Imaginative for all ages to tell their own story and take their own journey.

This is a good book to teach children how to come up with a story because it has no words. You would use this in a whole group lesson or a small group if the children are having trouble writing. This is great for ELL students to talk about the picture. I really enjoyed the pictures in this book if you can not tell.½

A boy visits a pool that quickly becomes very crowded. He dives under the surface and encounters a similarly reserved girl, and together they imagine all sorts of fanciful water wildlife.

great story that anyone can 'read'½

What happens when two shy children meet at a very crowded pool? Dive in to find out! Deceptively simple, this masterful book tells a story of quiet moments and surprising encounters, and reminds us that friendship and imagination have no bounds. Review from Amazon

Take the time to explore the beautifully atmospheric images in this book. There are a number of double page spreads that really gets across that wonderfully free feeling of swimming in a watery world. (Fiona)

This is a great book that brings to life children's vibrant imaginings in a swimming pool. There are no words but the conversation between the boy and girl playing in the pool as they take turns saying "And now pretend we see the biggest whale..." "And no pretend we are surrounded by a school of fish..." This book is wonderful!

I would use this book with k-5 students in a lesson on making friends, imagination and maybe sports