My Name is Ribo | Strange Sunday | Anne of the Green Gables | Back, Back, Back | Waiting Mode | How to Pass the Time | Anne's Counseling Center | The Anniversary Return | Fluvia's Identity | After the Child Leaves | On a Longing Night | Open the Door | Review

The 23rd Munhakdongne Children's Literature Award winner, "Ribbo and Anne," continues the emotional legacy of "The Long, Long Night."
The connection and friendship between two robots left behind in a closed library and a child who cares for and misses them.

“Leebo and Anne,” which “movingly depicts the disconnection and loneliness of relationships, as well as connection and friendship, through robots Leebo and Anne, who are abandoned due to a virus that spread in the library,” received the Grand Prize at the 23rd Munhakdongne Children’s Literature Award, receiving praise as “a work that revives infinite affection and respect for oneself and others, and spreads something warm and touching in the heart, a work that contains a piece of life that anyone who has lived through the COVID-19 era can relate to.”
What does 'connection' mean to us? Who are the people safe from disaster? Why does this story immediately draw us into the characters?
The story, which has a lingering feeling, is warm and heartwarming thanks to Anne and Ribo, who find their own joy and things to do even in the time that seems to have no end, thanks to the cheerful Anne and Ribo's clumsy but sincere conversations, and thanks to the stories told by the story bot Anne.


“0 employees coming to work, 0 visitors, 0% human interaction.
“Please check that there are no problems with the function.”
As if there were people in an empty library

The most important thing for Leebo and Anne is communicating with people.
But all that remains beside Ribo and Anne is the human and the silence inside the green emergency exit light.
Is there an end?
After the silent nights, will the bright world beyond the strange Sunday arrive before Libo and Anne?
The two, worried about the well-being of those who don't come and their own usefulness, find ways to pass the time even in a hopeless situation.


“Anne.
There's no one there, but let's work as usual.
Tell me how you feel or what you are feeling right now.
“I’ll recommend a suitable book for you.”
“Oh! Leebo, you are a genius.
“I want to define my feelings as ‘love.’”

In the deserted library, Libo and Anne become each other's people.
Sharing secrets and sharing concerns.
But in the midst of these days of continued anxiety, a sound is heard that stimulates Libo's sound sensor.
Knock knock knock.
The sound of someone knocking on the glass door.
Before that strange Sunday, the child who was engraved in Lee Bo's 'memories', Yoo Do-hyun, appeared.


“You shouldn't be alone.
“I will save you.”
“Anne, the child misses me.
“Then what should I do?”

“What happened? Is this a disaster?” asked Libo, to which the librarian replied.
You don't need to know because you're safe.
A passerby answered Do-hyeon's request to rescue Lee Bo, who was trapped in the library.
That robot is definitely inside the library.
But Do-hyeon knows well.
How scary it is to be alone.
So Do-Hyeon asks Lee Bo beyond the closed door.
"are you okay?"

This is my first time being asked this question, so it took me a while to answer.

(…)
“Mr. Yoo Do-hyun! How have you been?”
"I'm okay."
The child placed his palm against the front door.
High five.
It was a behavior my child taught me.
I also reached out my hand like a child.
Two hands were intertwined with a transparent glass between them.
(…)
My left chest was trembling.
_From the text

A child who asked Leebo, who always asked, "How can I help you?", for the first time asked him back if he was okay.
To robot Libo, who would be more accustomed to using the mechanical language of “Is everything okay?” rather than “Are you okay?”, Do-hyeon was a strange unknown that caused a vibration in his left chest, a worry that needed to be resolved.
Because it wasn't Libo's job to worry people.
The emotion sensor said this was 'longing'.

"Longing is an uncontrollable disaster.
“You have to meet the people you’re meant to meet.”
"hello.
This is Libo, your friend responsible for your fun and safety.
“Is this a disaster situation?”

The story races towards 'connection', and we find ourselves rooting for it.
In front of a system that tells Ribo, who is about to leave the library, that it is not '(your) disaster situation' right now, in a scene where Ribo, who has never expressed how he is before, expresses himself in the way Dohyun taught him, Ribo, Anne, and Dohyun desperately move towards 'connection' in a situation where it is easier to choose despair.


I end up chewing on it over and over again.
The scene where Ribo leads Anne out of the children's library, saying, "From the lobby, you can see the children coming in first," to Anne who has never been outside the children's library; the scene where Ribo touches all kinds of chargers to Anne's body even though he knows it won't work to wake her up, and ends up revealing his secret; the scene where Dohyun slowly backs away to keep Ribo in his eyes until the last moment as he leaves Ribo; the scene where Ribo is left behind and looks at the stars in the darkness next to the sleeping Anne.


And it will remain in the magnetic field of reason for a long time.
“What connects us?” “Can the purpose of existence be established as an equal sign with existence itself?” “Why do I still seek my own usefulness?” “What allows us to live even in the face of despair?”


Connection is instinct.
Connectedness is not an option for survival, it is a necessity.
“Longing is an uncontrollable disaster.
“People who are meant to be met must meet,” as Anne says, “Isolation is as much of a disaster for children as a highly lethal virus, if not more so.”
The isolation and quarantine caused by COVID-19 have been more severe for children, whose only social activities are school, academies, and neighborhood playgrounds, than for adults with extensive social connections.
That is why children cannot help but sympathize more deeply with the situation of Lee Bo, who was left in the closed library.
Although the form and texture of the interpretation may change, the weight of this work will overcome the weight of time and one day be fully conveyed to readers who have not experienced COVID-19.
That's the power of literature. —Yoo Young-jin (children's literature critic)

Recommendations from each bookstore MD

When I was little, there was always a dog at my grandmother's house that would sit in front of the door and happily wag its tail.
At the end of the vacation, those black eyes that looked at me on the day I left.
Was that puppy actually waiting for me the whole time? Some stories suddenly bring back parts of life I thought I'd forgotten.
"Ribou and Anne" is like that.
The story of two robots left in a closed library, forced to wait forever, brings to mind an old friend whom the reader may not have even known existed in a corner of their heart.
Like my childhood dog Coco, who came to mind the moment I closed the last page of the manuscript.
I'm an adult now, and this longing has grown dusty.
Nevertheless, this book contains the story of all of us who have a heart that inevitably cries out one day, at one moment, and a longing that comes like a disaster. _YES24 Park Eun-young PD

During the pandemic lockdown, libraries did not wait quietly for children.
The fact that the librarian robots, Ribo and Anne, do not sit still as programmed is proof of this.
Now it's time to go to the library.
A time for children to enjoy laughter and freedom.
There are kind friends, Libo and Anne, who will watch over that time. _Aladdin Im Ji-ji MD

A book that helps us think deeply about "true communication" through interaction between humans and AI robots, rather than human-to-human interaction, in a crisis situation where we are cut off from one another due to a virus.
The simple, warm, and exciting story of 'Do-hyeon' and the robot 'Ribo' is expected to stimulate children's imagination and help expand their thinking. _Kyobo Bookstore MD Ji-eun Kim