- Love of the scale
- Water molecules of love
- Principle of current interruption
- I am here
- Am I okay?

- Author's Note
- Recommendation

● We grow little by little in 'relationships'

"Let's Eat Chicken First, Puberty!" contains five stories about love and friendship among upper elementary school children.


“Ryu Dong-jae!” (...) Ryu Dong-jae threw the ball and looked at me.
/ “Why?” / It was a nonchalant voice.
/ “Why did you tell me to stop seeing you?” (...) Ryu Dong-jae said.
/ “……Just.” _From “Love of the Scale”

I stood there dumbfounded and suddenly thought.
Gyeongjiwan was Gyeongjiwan, and Johana was Johana.
Even though we are dating, we are still each our own selves.
_From "Water Molecules of Love"

That son of a bitch.
Yoon Jin-won likes Ryu Hee-jae.
An elementary school student dating a middle school student.
_From “The Principle of Current Interruption”

When I think of that guy, I smell apple sweat.
Apples and sweat.
It may seem like an odd combination, but this is what a true combination is.
Adding sweetness and saltiness.
_From "I am here"

The distance between us has not even been a centimeter.
(...) Eunji's messages separated us by 100 meters, no, 100 kilometers.
_From "Am I Okay?"

Dam-ha is flustered by her boyfriend's sudden breakup announcement ("Love on the Scale"), Ha-na wants to create a special world between herself and her boyfriend ("Water Molecules of Love"), Hee-won wants to stop her best friend Jin-won from liking her older sister Hee-jae ("The Principle of Current Shutoff"), Jae-hee uses social media to track the whereabouts of her high school boyfriend whom she fell in love with at first sight ("I Am Here"), and Ji-yu tries to fill her mother's empty spot with her friend Eun-ji's presence ("Am I Okay?").
The five children appearing in the work experience sharp conflicts and confrontations in different circumstances and situations.

But these five stories are not enough to be simply called stories of love or friendship.
This is because it contains the images of children growing up while learning and understanding the 'relationships' between themselves and another self, between themselves and others, and between themselves and the world.
How to love and cherish oneself, the moment when a familiar relationship approaches in a completely different way, the helplessness of affection that flows in one direction rather than two, and the true self learned through it, the inexplicable emptiness felt when trying to fill a lack with someone else's existence...
We don't come to know these feelings automatically.
These are things you can only learn through relationships with others.
In this way, 『First, Eat Chicken and Go Through Puberty』 deeply captures the story of children growing up while facing and accepting the relationships surrounding them.
It will provide empathy and comfort to adolescent readers going through a period of confusion and turmoil, as if to say, "I'm not the only one."

● A story that begins right now, with our children.

The stories in "Let's Eat Chicken First, Puberty!" feature situations that are familiar and close to children today.
Breakups are also conveyed through SNS messages, and interests are linked to Instagram, YouTube, and portal site cafes.
Going to Daiso or Olive Young to buy 'friendship items' for friends is easy, and finding out information about others through social media is as easy as eating cold porridge with just a few keywords.

After we went to the pool together, I received a text message.
'Let's stop seeing each other.' It was a breakup.
One sentence, four letters.
_From "Love of the Scale"

Without my cell phone, I feel disconnected from the world.
For us, our cell phones are our whole world.
Friends, dramas, songs, singers… … .
Everything in the world is there.
_From “The Principle of Current Interruption”

We had a great time eating and drinking together and giving each other little gifts.
For example, I bought a diary from Daiso and a tint from Olive Young and exchanged them.
_From "Am I Okay?"

In a world where you can find out just about anything with just three search terms, the world of social media is denser than a spider's web.
_From "I am here"

In this way, "Let's Eat Chicken First, Puberty!" begins its story by focusing on the realities that our children are actually experiencing.
Children, past and present, grow up and go through puberty, but the time they experience it is not the same.
The introduction of materials and backgrounds, which are so crucial for children's relationship formation these days, helps readers immerse themselves in the story more easily and quickly.

● Children's book author Park Hyo-mi X Illustrator Im Na-un
● Positive synergy created by two authors

Author Park Hyo-mi captures the emotions and inner world of adolescent children through unique sentences and profound, flowing metaphors.
In particular, the latter half of the story, where the main characters, after experiencing a series of conflicts, gain enlightenment in the midst of everyday life, touches the hearts of readers like a painting.
Thanks to the power of the author's sentences, each story in "Let's Eat Chicken First, Puberty!" leaves a special lingering impression, even though it is a short fairy tale.

Illustrator Im Na-un's drawings also add depth to the story.
Author Im Na-un has delicately expressed the meaning between the lines and the metaphors and symbols contained in the letters through her directing and composition, and the main color, which is set differently for each story, firmly captures the mood and tone of each story.
Moreover, the author's drawing style, reminiscent of comics and webtoons, will be much more emotionally relatable and close to today's teenage readers.
Now, let's turn each page and discover the synergy between the two authors that filled "First, Eat Chicken, Then Puberty!"