The birth of unique characters
The fun of tracking down secrets, surprising twists

You pile up new items and never sell them?
Why on earth?

A stationery store owner refuses to sell his goods vs. a middle school student who wants the school to close.
The area in front of the stationery store is noisy every day!

A children's hideout and playground, a general store that connects adults' hearts, a place where even the smallest display case holds traces of life and heart: Shinsang Stationery Store! With Grandma Danwol's death, Mr. Hwang arrives, filled with new items and adamantly refusing to sell them...

The new book 『New Stationery Store』 by Kim Seon-yeong, author of 『The Store That Sells Time』, which has surpassed 100 printings, has been published.
This is the first new book in a long time since the third story of 『The Shop That Sells Time』.
Author Kim Seon-yeong said that while writing, she felt like she was comforting herself by recalling her younger self, who seemed like she would never grow up.
Growing up is not about being indebted to someone, but rather relying on and being protected by that person.


Thanks to that, Dong-ha, who absolutely hates a life of debt, Pyeon-jo, who finds the space he so desperately wanted to live like a theater stage difficult, and Mo-kyung, who is distressed that if she had followed her father, she would be underwater like her mother.
The birth of unique characters and the fun and twists of tracing the secrets of the two central locations in the town, the Shinsang Stationery Store and the Geujip Restaurant, are enough to make this a new hit from bestselling youth author Kim Seon-young.
This work further highlights the abilities of author Kim Seon-yeong, who is said to have taken Korean youth literature to the next level with her dense sentences.

When the mother of the knitted doll left in the car with the doll in her arms, the doll started running barefoot until the car was out of sight.
He didn't care even though his toenails were broken and his soles were torn and bleeding.
Then I picked up my knitted shoes and ran after them.
Sometimes I would run faster than the wind, so that if someone who didn't know what was happening saw me, they would think the car turning the corner was my mom and dad.
My parents would have stopped the car at least once, but after that incident, they haven't stopped the car since.
It was because of the stone in the knitting hand.
I never stopped my car again after a rock from a stray bullet shattered my windshield.

On nights like that, Pyeonjo would run into our house, pushing my grandmother's chest.

--- p.29

The stationery store's flimsy glass door is locked with a padlock.
It was so unfamiliar.
This never happened when Grandma Danwol was around.
Why bother locking the door when the owner is watching with his eyes wide open like that? Unless he's not going to do business in the first place.

When I turned around and looked at Mr. Hwang, he walked over quickly as if he had been waiting for me.

“Welcome, let’s go in.”
Mr. Hwang took a key out of his pocket.
I watched Mr. Hwang's hands in silence.

“Why did you lock it?”
It is clear that adults have eyes on the back and sides of their heads.

--- p.42

“You are too serious.”
“That’s because you don’t know the relationship between Shinsang Stationery Store and me.”
I don't think what Mo-kyung said was entirely wrong, but I felt a little sad.
I thought that since she didn't know the circumstances, she wouldn't know how serious I was, but I didn't want to explain everything to Mo-gyeong.

“A relationship? What?”
“I was a part-time worker.
why."
"Oh my, there really was a part-timer? I guess I'll have to check out this stationery store again."
Mo-gyeong looked at the green roof of the Shinsang Stationery Store, which was fading away, with a very covetous look in her eyes.

“How much is the part-time job? It seems like a really good job.”
“That’s not the kind of part-time job you do.”
"If it's a part-time job, it's a part-time job. What do you mean it's not that kind of part-time job? But that old man just turned down a high-level employee like me, right? I'm the one being criticized, right?"
Anyway, he has a really good personality.

"good."
As the road forked, I waved my hand at Mo-gyeong and made a face that said I didn't want to say anything more.

--- p.51~52

“I have no choice but to do it until the next person comes.
I know that my limbs and body are still intact, so I take this as a sign that I can still do it.
The boss said before that I would get a signal someday.
When I asked what the signal was, he said he didn't know and that the person receiving the signal would know.
One day, when I get the right signal, I will pass it on.
Every morning when I open my eyes, I think to myself that I just need to live well today.
So, my heart can't be that soft.
“Just for today, I’ll do my best to boil red beans, make delicious white kimchi, and pickle mustard greens.”
“So, who was the first person to open this store?”
“Hey, you piece of shit, why do you keep interrupting me when I’m making such a serious confession?” --- p.79~80

There were many times when I hated myself because I felt like I was living off my grandmother.
There were many times when I hated myself so much, thinking, how can one life be so indebted to another life?
Every time I thought about that, I wished I could crumble into dust and disappear.
Contrary to such a wind, I swelled up to be bigger than the rock of White Rock Mountain and the peak of White Mountain, and I couldn't even support myself.
At that time, I jumped up to the top of the white mountain in one breath.
When I was out of breath and everything went dark, I couldn't think of anything.

--- p.100~101

The knitter told me I was a pacifist.
He said he was looking for another way to express it other than saying it was nice… … .
He is a pacifist.
I don't know if that's sarcasm or a compliment.
I think that if the surroundings are peaceful, I will feel comfortable and be kind to myself.
He said that the fact that he came running to comfort her whenever she cried was also on that level.
That's nonsense.
I don't understand why people think knitting is so complicated.
That's the charm of knitting, but sometimes it's surprising.
The point is that when we see someone who is not at peace, we feel uncomfortable and mistakenly think that they like to be nice to us.
Hearing those words, I looked back on myself.
But it wasn't like that.
The answer lies in observing the heart's response.
When I think about knitting, my heart starts pounding.
So I know.
Because only I know the trembling of my heart.

--- p.144

“Are you really going to Seoul?”
“I’ll think about it again when you come back.”
“Really? I kind of want to come back, but I don’t.
Because I knew that Mom and Dad were working just as hard as I was.
I think I should just leave the crying child inside me and move on.
Wouldn't that give me the strength to take care of my younger self? If I don't take care of myself now, who will be able to take care of my younger, barefoot self?
“You too.”
“You seem like an adult.”
I looked up at the braid and said.
The braid wasn't just tall.

“What do adults do? I don’t want to be anything like an adult.
I think it's hard for adults too.
“It seems like my grandmother has aged a lot since I last saw her.”
"so do i.
My grandmother didn't say anything, but after she decided to send me away, she became increasingly uneasy.
“Just look at me.”
“You are practicing letting go.
My grandmother did the same thing.”
--- p.169~170

The shadow of a parent lasts a child's entire life.
Whether you received love or not.

Life is a struggle to win love.
Trembling with anxiety about being abandoned, I wonder why my mom and dad acknowledge my brother more than me, and do they even love me?
Why is my friend closer to him than to me? This is a process of constantly confirming love through questions like these.
As I conceived and wrote this novel, the image of a boy burying his face in my lap and crying lingered in my mind.
I didn't realize it until I was almost finished with the novel.
That boy was none other than me.
I was a child, anxious about being loved or not being loved.
Now I'm going to talk to the boy inside me.
Growing up is not about being indebted to someone, but rather relying on and being protected by that person.

--- From the main text, “Creative Notes”