■ What does ‘home’ mean to us?

In our country, there is an unusually strong obsession with housing as a form of property value.
Recently, there has been a real estate craze where people are even gathering their souls to buy their own homes.
Many people work tirelessly to build their own home.
What does home mean to us that we strive so hard for it throughout our lives? The picture book "My House," written by David Cali and illustrated by Sébastien Moulin, prompts us to contemplate the meaning of "home."


This book features a protagonist who spends his entire life searching for the right home for himself.
The protagonist, who spent his childhood in a shabby house in a small seaside town, moves around his entire life, obsessed with finding his 'true home'.
If we look at where and what kind of home this person decides to live in at each stage of his life, we can see what values ​​he considers important in life at that time.
In youth, we want to go out into the wider world and gain experience. In middle age, we seek success in our busy lives. In middle age, we desire wealth and fame. As we get older, we yearn for stability and rest.
If you think about it, home may seem like just a space where we live, but it is also a place where the important values ​​of our lives are compressed.

Unfortunately, the protagonist never finds a satisfactory home anywhere in his life.
So, I wander around the world without settling down in a specific place.
And finally, I suddenly decide on ‘a certain house’ as my home… … .
Where on earth is that place?

After reading this book, I feel like life is a long journey that we embark on to get back on track.
The place where our hearts turn as we pass through our youth, when we pursue adventure and romance, through middle age, when we enjoy wealth and success, and through old age, when we long for comfort.
Isn't that truly "my home"? Through the medium of "home," author David Cali invites us to contemplate the meaning and purpose of life.

Everyone has different ideas about home.
The house the protagonist finally settles in isn't necessarily the correct answer.
So the protagonist answers the question of whether he has found his real home very clearly.

“Well, I don’t know about that…….”
Now, it's up to each of us reading this book to find the 'my home' that best suits us!

■ Come back, the symbol of 'yellow'

Because this book is about a space called 'home', the book size is very large.
You can unfold the wide screen to look around the house and vividly feel the place where the house is located.
On the other hand, the text is placed only in the scene where the main character moves, and the text is divided into two paragraphs, the first half talking about the current scene and the second half talking about the scene to come.
The first paragraph describes the house you left behind and your feelings about why you left, and the second paragraph introduces the house you will visit and explains why you chose that house.


The piece begins with a scene of a child wearing a yellow coat and yellow boots riding a bicycle.
From then on, objects expressed in yellow are always present in every scene, such as yellow jumpers, yellow sweaters, yellow signs, yellow cars, and yellow hats.
Even in very blurry scenes where the yellow color seems to have almost disappeared, if you look closely, there is always a yellow-colored medium around the main character.

In this work, the color yellow has a very symbolic meaning.
The color yellow usually represents hope and bright energy, and a yellow ribbon in particular also carries the meaning of 'come back safely.'
This meaning of yellow also flows subtly through this work.
In this calm, low-saturation painting, the yellow color makes the protagonist stand out at a glance, while also evoking nostalgia for the hometown where he was born and raised.
This is a device that shows that even when the protagonist leaves his hometown and wanders in a foreign land, he still feels a longing for his hometown in a corner of his heart.
In each scene, I would like you to look for the 'yellow' placed around the main character and think about the theme of heading towards 'my home'.


■ A painting containing the meaning of growth and maturity

"My House" is a picture book that, like "The Pea" and "The Best Tea," was created by writer David Cali and illustrator Sebastien Moulin.
In France, this work was published before 『The Best Tea』, but it has only just been published in Korea.


This book depicts the life of a protagonist who leaves his hometown where he was born and raised and moves from house to house.
That is why it contains the life story of a person from childhood to adolescence, youth, middle age, and old age.
Just by looking at the picture, we can naturally figure out what the main character looks like, what he does, and how he ages.


Artist Sebastien Moulin combines delicate pencil sketches with clean, simple computer coloring to create images rich in symbolism and meaning.
For example, the protagonist uses different means of transportation each time he moves.
When we were young, we used bicycles, when we were teenagers, we used motorcycles, when we were young, we used old, small cars, when we were middle-aged, we used sedans, and later, we used airplanes, sports cars, boats… We use different vehicles at different stages of life and in different situations.
Through this, we can get a glimpse into social status, economic situation, and values.
Later, the image of this vehicle continues into the scene in "The Best Car" where the main character rides in a car.

The realistic and vivid neighborhood scenery, people's expressions and movements, and various hidden devices hidden throughout the painting make it difficult to take your eyes off the painting, allowing you to explore and observe the flow of time and changes in space.
Just as the protagonist embarks on a journey to find his home, the reader of the book will also feel satisfied, as if they have traveled a long journey of life with the protagonist.