Category: Younghee and the Pullocho (Page 2 of 2)

So, Young-hee and the Pullocho has been out for a couple of weeks now. Still a bit early, I guess, but we have a few reviews out there. The nicest probably came from the children’s book site Kidsreads:

“Author Mark James Russell does an incredible job with descriptive language; readers will want to reread the descriptions of the landscape, characters and events simply so they can enjoy the sentences a second time.”

Booklist had some nice things to say, too (the Booklist website is paywalled, but the quote can be found on Amazon):

“A likable, modern heroine, Young-hee deals with challenges that, while sometimes dreamlike, bring about definite changes in her viewpoint. This quick-paced adventure story is one of the few middle-grade novels available here that reflect Korean culture and lore.”

Finally, Amanda Boyarshinov, one of the founders of The Educators’ Spin on It, also had some nice things to say about my book.  Her inital comment was on Instagram, where she called The Pullocho “a challenging, but good girl adventure read.” That led to some emails between us where she also called the story “a delightful girl adventure story that encourages strong brother-sister relationships.”

All very much appreciated. And hopefully there will be some more before too long.

I just noticed over on Goodreads that my publisher has set up a little giveaway for Young-Hee & the Pullocho. If you head over to The Pullocho‘s page on Goodreads, you can enter the contest for a chance to win one of two copies. You have until June 5 to sign up.

And a bit thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the contest so far!

Some happy news, for those of you who prefer your books electronic and your trees to continue standing — Young-hee and the Pullocho is now available at Amazon as an e-book, too. Like the paperback, it will ship on May 12.

No signs of the e-book version at Barnes & Noble, Indigo, or other stores, but I assume it will soon appear in all the major e-book formats on all the major websites.

So, Kirkus has come out with what I think is the first review of Young-hee and the Pullocho. But they didn’t seem terribly impressed. On the positive side:

Russell enriches his debut novel with many details borrowed from Korean folk tales. Fans of stories within stories will enjoy the tales included here,

But the reviewer also seems to think that young readers will find the contents confusing and did not like how I started things off in the middle of the action, then looped back. The word “mundane” was used.

One the other hand, a friend of mine gave the book to her 9-year-old daughter, who apparently enjoyed it immensely and did not find it confusing at all.

“It’s amazing!”  –  4.75/5 stars

The mom said she likes it, too, although her daughter raced ahead and read it all first. Funny that a middle-aged reviewer worried a book would be confusing, while a 9-year-old had no problem. I know which review I prefer.

It’s still rather early to talk about this, but seeing as the Amazon.com page is up, I guess this is a decent time to announce my new book — and my first novel. It’s titled YOUNG-HEE AND THE PULLOCHO and it is coming out in the spring by Tuttle Publishing.

(UPDATE: I just found out the book is coming out in Asia in January, but Amazon.com and the West probably won’t get it until April or May).

THE PULLOCHO is a fantasy novel, in the vein of Alice in Wonderland or the Narnia books (or The Wizard of Oz or Hayao Miyazak’s movies or the like). As you can guess from the title, it is set in Korea and it is about a girl named Young-hee.

So what is it about?

So annoying.

In Young-hee’s life, everything feels wrong. It seemed like only yesterday that her world was just as it should be. But now her dad is gone, her mom is overextended, and Young-hee is forced to move back to Seoul—and not a nice part of Seoul, either. To make matters worse, the girls at her new school are nasty, and her little brother Bum is an insufferable, attention-hogging pain.

Then Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the Korean fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away—until Bum is kidnapped by a goblin, and the only way Young-hee can save him is by finding the magical pullocho plant. Soon, she is plunged into an epic quest, encountering dragons, tigers, ghosts and other fairytale creatures, and facing decisions that affect not only Bum, but the fate of an entire world.

Fyi, a pullocho (불로초) is a kind of magical ginseng root. In addition, I also retell a whole bunch of Korean traditional folktales, weaving them into Young-hee’s story.

After years of writing about other people’s art (movies, music, etc.), it feels good to have created something of my own. YOUNG-HEE AND THE PULLOCHO comes out next April or May, but already you can pre-order it on a lot of online retailers, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Indigo (in Canada),  and Kyobo Books (in Korea).

Much more to come as the publication date gets closer!