Okchundang Candy

Starred review from November 25, 2024
A child’s unconditional love for their tender, quirky grandparents pivots into a bittersweet coming-of-age narrative in Go’s delicate and raw autobiographical tale. The bespectacled narrator spends school vacations at their grandparents’ home where simple pleasures—sitting in front of a fan, eating watermelon—prevail. Observing Grandfather’s gentleness toward his small, shy wife, the child recalls, “I think I loved watching my grandparents being so sweet to each other because my own parents were so busy fighting back home.” Grandfather’s premature death of lung cancer prompts Grandma
to withdraw emotionally; the now-older narrator tries to take his place, eventually witnessing the physical manifestations of her declining health. Crisp-edged cartoon-style illustrations rendered with loose pencil sketches give the work a handmade feel that parallels the tone of events: full pages of a sunny, colored-pencil childhood darken to smudged graphite comic-strip panels as Grandma’s health worsens. Go’s focus on scatological details, such as the couples’ toilet paper rule of “two squares for pee, three for poop,” presages Grandma’s later incontinence, which is handled with compassion by her grandchild. It’s a meditative graphic novel that twines the joys of living and the pain of loss into one indistinguishable braid. All characters cue as East Asian. Ages 10–14.

Starred review from January 15, 2025
Go reflects on the experience of watching her beloved grandparents grow older and weaker. The young narrator adores spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Their interactions have a loving simplicity: Grandpa gently places a hat on Grandma's head when the weather turns hot, and every Jesa Day, when many Korean people honor their ancestors, he gives her a brightly colored okchundang candy. As the book progresses and the narrator matures, Grandpa is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, but he initially conceals his illness from everyone except Grandma. Slowly he weakens and dies. Grandma retreats into silence; a doctor diagnoses her with Alzheimer's, and she's admitted to a nursing home. Mirroring the sweet okchundang, her color fades with time. Told from the perspective of an adult Go reminiscing, this graphic memoir, set and originally published in South Korea, takes on aging and death--topics many authors flinch from--with a rare mix of respect, tenderness, and candor. Love is palpable throughout, too: in the grandparents' enduring bond and in scenes of the narrator bathing Grandma and trimming her nails. Go's illustrations have a childlike playfulness that often tempers the heavy subject matter; characters have rounded, oversize heads, while pencil marks are visible throughout. Themes of familial love and loss will pierce readers' hearts while also offering them both windows and mirrors into Korean culture. An achingly lovely work laced with profound truths on love, death, and grief.(Graphic memoir. 10-14)

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Starred review from February 1, 2025
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Although Go's English-language debut--thoughtfully translated by Park--is officially recommended for readers ages 10 to 14 years old, this sweet, poignant tale deserves to be appreciated by all audiences, particularly adults with aging parents. Queue the (cathartic) ugly tears, though, and prepare with plenty of tissues. The everlasting love story belongs to Mr. Go Jadong and Ms. Kim Soonim, war orphans who married and had three children, the eldest of whom is Go's father. Go spent every school break with her grandparents, laughingly upholding house rules for toilet paper ("two squares for pee, three for poop"), appreciating silliness ("my grandfather sang me my cartoon theme songs . . . not even close to the original ones on TV"), basking in a "house filled with summer lingering" (power fans, ripe watermelon, afternoon naps). "I loved watching my grandparents being so sweet to each other because my own parents were so busy fighting back home." Grandpa was Grandma's only friend, but Grandpa cared for all--especially those disrespected or dismissed by judgmental strangers. But the joy fades when Grandpa dies; Grandma loses her voice and over two long, lonely decades, gradually shrinks away. Their posthumous reunion near book's end proves heartbreakingly glorious. Go gently illustrates her stupendously affecting narrative in mostly black-and-white, with and without panels, with soft overlays of mostly pastels, making the few pages with bright colors utterly spectacular.

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February 28, 2025

Gr 3-7-Much like its namesake, Okchundang Candy is a delicate, beautiful confection. This picture book feels like an elevation of what the format can show and teach. It's closer to a short graphic memoir, homespun comic art depicting an affecting story of family, love, and loss. Creating illustrations in sketchy gray lines with splashes of colored pencil, Go details memories of her grandparents as a simple recollection. There's plenty of appreciation for her grandfather's kindness, his tender relationship with Go's grandmother, his small acts of decency. Readers see nostalgia-infused memories of summers spent with grandparents, learning what love looks like. It spirals through time, through grief, loss, and even regrets as the grandparents age and diminish. Throughout it all, there is still a glimpse of the small bits of joy that appear throughout life. VERDICT A beautiful, emotional take on family and history. Full of layers to explore with upper elementary students and beyond.-Cat McCarrey

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