Secret Errand · 7 / Where's the Gochujang? · 19 / To Seoritgol · 29 / Green Rice in the Mountains · 41 / Hot Peppers and Poopy Puppy · 60 / Chestnuts That Fill the Vacant Space · 70 / Inner Thoughts · 80 / The Secret of Gochujang · 89 / Spicy, Salty, and Sweet · 102 / Author's Note · 118

*The first Junior Kim Young-sa Children's Literature Award Grand Prize Winner
*Unanimous selection by the jury - "A story without a single flaw."
*Where is the gochujang that revived the king's appetite? The arduous journey of Saenggaksi Sobok, who sets out on a special errand!

There was a king who loved a spoonful of spicy, sweet, and salty gochujang more than the delicacies from all over the country.
This is King Yeongjo, the 21st king of Joseon.
In the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, it is recorded that “If you have these four flavors, mushrooms, abalone, young pheasant, and fermented soybean paste, you will eat well (July, year 44 of King Yeongjo’s reign),” and in the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat, it is recorded that “The fermented soybean paste that was first served last time was very good (May, year 27 of King Yeongjo’s reign).”
The imagination that started from the 'King who loved gochujang', which can be easily found in old records, branched out and was reborn as a story as delicious as gochujang.

The first monumental winner of the 'Junior Kim Young-sa Children's Literature Award', which was established to open a new world for children, 'Gochujang Errand' has been published.
This is a story about the journey of Saenggaksi Sobok, who sets out to find the gochujang that revived the king's taste buds, and the twists and turns of the people she meets along the way.
It was unanimously selected as the grand prize winner by the judges, receiving praise as “a masterpiece that takes the strengths of existing historical fairy tales, traditional fairy tales, and creative fairy tales and develops them into a higher level.”


“Huh? You said you accidentally put the gochujang I brought on the king’s table?”
A special journey that captures the power of words and the flavor of stories heard.

One day, after an unusually long and dark rainy season, Sobok is suddenly given an unexpected errand.
By chance, Sobok's gochujang was served on the table instead of Gung gochujang, and the king's appetite, which had declined significantly since July of the year of Im-o, was revived thanks to the gochujang.
Sobok hurries to Saga to get some gochujang, but alas, the jar is empty! And the gochujang wasn't even made by her grandmother.
Sobok, who needs to get gochujang right away, sets out on a difficult journey by crossing mountains and rivers to find the secret recipe for gochujang.

The story of running errands that begins at dawn follows the rising and setting sun, and meanders along the mountains and rivers that Sobok-i crosses, capturing the reader's attention.
Sometimes, the characters' lines last for half a page, but rather than being boring, they become more and more immersive as you read, thanks to the 'telling' format the author chose.
In the usual narrative style, the speaker and the listener are divided into characters in the creative world and readers in the real world, respectively, by the boundary of the book, but storytelling places another listener between the speaker and the readers, drawing readers outside the book into the book.
Thanks to this, readers of this book can have the special experience of becoming characters in the story, going beyond mere observers and changing roles to become the court lady, the eunuch of the merchant ship, the king, and the crown prince.
The savory dialect of the main character, Sobok, is added to the story, adding a sense of rhythm and deepening the flavor of the story.

“So, somehow I ended up running an errand outside the palace that day…….”
A delightful and heartwarming collection of stories from encounters on errands.

After many twists and turns, Sobok returns safely to the palace and begins to share her experiences one by one.
At the center of the story are characters as unusual as the taste of gochujang.
Starting with the King, who is the origin of the gochujang errand, the Crown Prince who shares the pain of losing his parents, the grandmother and grandfather who have opposite personalities and speech patterns and bicker endlessly, the blind oil vendor who sees the future better than the sighted, the creepy gravedigger who mourns alone for three years in the dark mountains, the slovenly and rude puppy with no manners and even the stone-like grandfather...
Each person's story adds a colorful episode to Sobok's errands.


If there are people who tell stories, there are also people who listen to them.
The court lady who cherishes Sobok like a real older sister, Sook who growls whenever they meet, whether it's jealousy or not, Sangseon who is a master of chasing, and even the characters who don't reveal their stories like the magical Baekgu, all come alive and breathe vividly, forming another axis of the story.
Sobok's errands are completed as a single story by overlapping the stories and voices of countless people.


On a winding road, rediscovering lost flavor and heart.
Into the spicy, salty, and sweet story of errands that connect people and hearts.

What heals a person's heart is ultimately someone else's heart.
True feelings penetrate deep into a person's heart, soothe pain, and give them the courage to express the words and feelings they once held back.
Sobok's errands and the stories of the people she met along the way soothed the hearts of the King and the Crown Prince who had suffered a tragic incident, and gave her grandmother, grandfather, and the two court ladies-in-waiting memories that will last a long time.
Furthermore, the messenger, So-bok, became an opportunity for herself to become stronger in the face of difficult circumstances.


The warm colors and fantastical effects characteristic of the illustrator Mocha always firmly guide the atmosphere, which could easily become dark and heavy, into its proper place, like a cheerful and positive Sobok.
Thanks to the illustrations that firmly support the last axis of the story, the pleasure of reading, listening, and even seeing has been completed.


Our lives are like gochujang, sometimes so spicy that it brings tears to our eyes, and sometimes so salty that we want to spit it out, but there is always a sweetness hidden at the end.
It's like a smile blooming for the first time in a long time after a long and arduous errand, like a heart that seemed like it would never be able to connect finally connecting and becoming a force that supports each other.
I hope that young readers who encounter this book will also vividly experience Sobok's voice and discover their own unique flavors and fun.