Driven by pure love and fervent desire
A distant, unknown place

"How to Store a Snowman" is a picture book that depicts the hopes and imaginations of a child who doesn't want to let go of a snowman that came to him like a gift one winter.
It's a dream, but it's so vivid that I want it to become a reality.
This dreamlike reality transcends multiple dimensions of space and time.
A place that touches the sky, a place beyond the edge of the sky, a place that passes through the depths of the sea, and even to the distant past... These places of time and space, crossing mountaintops, space, and ice ages, are all unknown worlds to a child.
A place that is unreachable but desperately longs to be reached, a place where I am not afraid of the eternal cold or the pitch-black darkness, as long as I can protect 'you'.
As we explore these unknown places, holding tightly to the snowman's hand, we experience together how far deep and pure love and friendship can take us.

Just reach out and you're within reach
The place of eternity

But surprisingly, this quest for 'eternal friendship' takes us from the seemingly unreachable to the within arm's reach.
‘A painter who captures time on white paper’, ‘an exciting stage’ where the ‘main character of the story’ is a snowman… This is the realm of art.
It seems that the child's earnest wish to keep time and relationships by his side forever has made him instinctively aware of the place where the brief moments of our lives are stored as eternal time.
In that allure, the time of these two, the child and the snowman, is sublimated into a picture that will always 'smile with the same face' even after one, two, or countless winters have passed, and further, as many people enjoy it together, it becomes a stage that is imprinted on the souls and hearts of many people.
This is the place of eternal stories, where the story of two people becomes everyone's story.

And right now,
Here we are together

The child's hope, so powerful that he hopes to reach the unreachable, so powerful that he longs for an art that can capture fleeting moments forever, is condensed into the final "invention" at the end of the story.
This invention may seem like it could never exist in this world, but in fact, it's something we all hold vividly in our hands.
It is not that vague, unknown land we cannot reach, nor that distant past we cannot return to, nor that vague future so far away that the long tail of art can reach it, but 'now, this moment where we are together.'
A vivid joy that seems close enough to be grasped, a time as dazzlingly beautiful as a snowflake.
Perhaps the fervent wish that our bond and memories will last forever is the most powerful magic spell that makes it possible.
When we remember that spell, our winter will live long, not in that distant land, not in that distant yesterday or tomorrow, but right here, right now.
Then, at that time, we can rewrite the meaning of 'the end' together, which we did not know and did not want to know.

Picture books: A place that presents "dreams," not "ends."

"How to Store a Snowman" is the first picture book by authors Heo Yun-ji and Heo Ji-won.
My younger sister wrote the text and my older sister drew the pictures.
This story, born from a warm and precious encounter that we want to cherish, has been refined and reborn countless times through the sisters' countless days and nights.
Each scene is filled with a warm sincerity, so that the heart of someone who hoped that a precious encounter could become an eternal season rather than a fleeting one can be gently embraced.
A picture book that will serve as a dreamlike time capsule for children who have yet to reach the entrance to the countless 'ends' they will face in the future, or for adults who have explored every corner of the edge.
A place that presents an eternal dream, not a clear end.
This is the world we long to enter together, holding hands with our loved ones, on this long-awaited Christmas.