Campground at night
Fox will-o'-the-wisps
Alley catcher
Earth Child
Haunted House
Giant's Footprints
The courage not to cry
The whirlwind is blowing

Author's Note

Every time I judge a youth fiction award, there's still a glimmer of hope that I can't let go of.
With society undergoing such turbulent change, wouldn't there be works that reflect the new sensibilities of a generation that has experienced these changes? If such sensibilities were revealed through a young protagonist, they would shine brightly.
It is worth looking forward to what kind of world this writer will create with the sensibility of a generation.

-Judges: Kim Jin-kyung (poet, children's book writer), Kim Gyeong-yeon (youth literature critic), Lee Ok-su (youth novelist)


● How do the children of Earth feel about the world?
Alleyway thief: A person who decides to do something new and finds new meaning in it.

"Earth Child" is like an intense play unfolding on the stage of Earth.
In each one-act play, the main character comes on stage and begins to unfold his or her story, and when the curtain falls on the eight stages of the play, the audience is left to stare at themselves to see what pose they are taking on the stage where they are standing.
The children appearing in the collection of short stories are orphans from the beginning, lonely and isolated, and must choose their own path in life ("Fox Will-o'-the-Wild", "Alley Catcher"), and must learn how to survive on a desolate Earth where all the wealthy people have left for Mars ("Earth Child").
But children do not spend their future blaming those who abandoned them, nor do they deny their very existence.
Rather, they accept the conditions of existence and show themselves making choices and acting.


A street swindler is someone who accepts the condition of existence of being cut off from worldly relationships and thrown away without any defined meaning, and decides to take new actions and find new meaning.
This exploration is symbolized by "Footprints of Giants" and is also expressed in "The Courage Not to Cry" as something pursued by a person who fell to his death while attempting to climb the Himalayas.
_From the review comments

"Alleyway Catch", which best demonstrates this direction, is the story of a boy living in a slum, the shadow of a wealthy neighborhood.
My father lost his thumb while working at a factory and lost his will to live, and my mother, who was watching him, turned her back on the family.
The boy acts as a 'roadman' in the maze-like alleys, guiding criminals who are running away from crime to avoid being caught.


But there wasn't even an exit here.
The only thing that can get them out is a street hustler who makes a path and runs.
_From "Alleyway Catcher"

The boy chooses to become a 'street thief'.
It is up to the reader to decide whether he chooses to become a guide who leads lost people out of this maze, or whether he chooses to remain in the maze and survive as a guide for the bad guys.
“A person who decides on a new action and finds a new meaning for it.” By creating a new word and meaning, “alley thief,” the author provides a basis for the character’s choice of action.
'Alley Catcher' is displayed in the appearance of the main characters that appear in each short story, such as 'I' ('Footprints of a Giant') who witnesses the dark shadow of his older brother, and 'I' ('Courage Not to Cry') who shakes off the environment and carves out his own path, and it plays a role in uniting the entire collection of short stories.



● A feast of unique and powerful stories that stir the heart

I wondered if it was really a good thing to run away as the only one left without becoming a zombie.
I just felt more comfortable becoming a zombie myself.
Like this moment.
_From "Night Campground"

On a night in a city suffering from a power shortage, two boys go camping to escape the heat and encounter creatures whose entire bodies glow with luminescence and display a terrifying aggression.
A strange scientist met in the mountains, and Chang-su gets bitten by a glow-in-the-dark fish.
Woohyun is troubled by the choices he has to make in a zombie game-like reality.

Short stories are a highly artistic genre that sharply reveals a cross-section of a particular moment in life. (_From the judges' comments) Author Choi Hyun-joo dramatically presents terrifying situations, offering a unique and intense literary pleasure that only a cross-section can provide.
If "Night Campground" is a horror film, "Earth Child" is a sci-fi film with a lingering afterimage.

In the end, the once beautiful blue planet Earth became a final dumping ground for failed clones, vagrants, and criminals.
_From "Earth Child"

As the Earth becomes devastated by irreversible environmental pollution, humans begin to migrate to Mars, considering it a second Earth.
However, those who cannot afford the enormous cost of migration remain on Earth and barely survive.
'Nao', who sells cloned humans that were created and discarded by humans, is depicted as someone who prioritizes survival over humanity.
The chilling dystopian setting captivates the viewer from the beginning, and the final twist that challenges humanity once again captures the heart with even greater power, all contained within a short story.

From "The Ghost House," which depicts the world's inability to embrace a child who has been sexually assaulted and the victim, as if it were a "place where only ghosts run wild," to "The Courage Not to Cry," which depicts two children overcoming their grief while searching for a wooden doll hidden in the mountains, the short story collection "Earth Child" contains a sharp gaze that does not avoid but stares straight on the fears we face while living on Earth.