A message from Choi Sook-hee, the author of the picture book “It’s Okay,” to her only son and to all the children in the world.
A message of love: "You are a miracle."

“It’s a miracle that you are my child.”
Mothers remember.
The moment a baby first comes into the world.
The feeling I had when I finally held the child I had been carrying in my womb for nine whole months.
And I remember again.
The first laugh, the first tooth, the first sparkling eyes and the moment when you called out, “Mom!”
The coolness of dawn after holding a sick child all night, the deepened gaze in the child's eyes after waking up from a few days of illness, the bag that seemed unusually large when the child first came out into the world, and the whispers and comforting hands the child gave when he was exhausted...
Sometimes with overwhelming emotion, sometimes with deep pain, a mother spends long and short times with her child.


But as the child grows, this feeling gradually fades.
As a child goes out into the world, it seems that friends and teachers become more important to the child than the mother.
The mother becomes a coach, and the child becomes a player on the field and starts running forward.
Rather than telling their children that they love them, mothers often pour out harsh words to them, such as telling them to study, clean their room, stop playing games, and eat a balanced diet.
Still, deep down in a mother's heart, the joy and happiness her child gave her remains intact.
Even though it's only when I look at my sleeping child late at night that my heart opens slightly.

Choi Sook-hee, a children's book author and mother of one, fondly remembers the simple yet profound moments she experienced while raising her son, now a high school student.
There were times of heart-pounding joy and heart-breaking pain, but the child was the greatest gift in the writer's life.
This book, "You Are a Miracle," contains the cheering song that Choi Sook-hee, the mother, sings to herself and her children, the story that she wants to share with all the mothers in the world, laughing and crying together, and the stories that mothers, busy with their daily lives, cannot say but want to tell while looking at their sleeping children late at night.

“From the moment you are born, you are the center of the world.”
When a child is born, mothers enter a new time zone that revolves around the child, rather than one created by the Earth's rotation and revolution.
So, for mothers, the morning begins not when the sun rises, but when their children open their eyes.
Since my baby came into the world, the sun that rose every day seems to peek out from the darkness to see our baby, and the flowers that always bloomed in spring seem to burst into buds to smile along with our baby.
The day my baby first called out, “Mommy!” even the deer running across the field seemed to stop and listen to my baby’s voice.


In "You Are a Miracle," the sun, stars, birds, trees, and everything else in the world exist with and for the child.
When a child takes his first steps, the ground firmly supports his precarious steps, and when the child cries, the sky pats his shoulder and cries with him.
When the child finally goes to school, the whole world applauds and cheers him on.
The natural landscape depicted by picture book author Choi Sook-hee captures the emotions a mother feels during those miraculous moments when her child grows up, overcoming one hurdle after another.

Author Choi Sook-hee speaks of the inner truths of a child's heart and a mother's heart.
Choi Sook-hee, who wrote and illustrated this book, is a star picture book author representing Korea.
The best-selling book, “It’s Okay,” which was included in the first grade textbook for elementary school students, and “Peekaboo with the Twelve Zodiac Animals,” “Me Too, Me Too,” and “Whose Shadow Am I,” which were published over ten years ago and have been consistently loved as the first books for babies, have been consistently loved by parents and children through various books.
The reason that Choi Sook-hee's picture books are loved by both children and mothers is because of her uniquely warm, delicate, and dense illustrations, as well as her ability to effectively express the desires deep in children's hearts through the medium of picture books.


The words that children want to hear the most but cannot easily come out of their parents' mouths are 'It's okay.'
With just this one sentence, author Choi Sook-hee created a wonderful picture book called “It’s Okay” and comforted the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers.
This book was able to touch the hearts of so many readers because it was not just a story created in the author's mind, but a message of comfort to himself, a child who was more delicate and sensitive than anyone else, and thus more easily hurt.

Now, the author sends a new message to her precious son, who is like a double, and to herself, who has lived as his mother.
A message of love to my son, Yeong-sang, who has been the greatest strength, joy, pain, and challenge in my life, and to all the children in the world who were born to be loved.

“Every day I spent with you, every month I spent with you, every year I spent with you
It was all a miracle to me.
“It’s a miracle that you are my child.”