Author's Note
How can I be happy? It's a question I've been pondering for a long time.
And the answer I got after a long time was that I need to know myself well to be happy.
As I tried to get to know myself, I realized that I had been deceiving myself in many ways.
I created this picture book, “My Real Wish,” lamenting the desires I had neglected and tried to ignore.

How can the children reading this book find happiness? And when and what makes me feel good? What excites me? What are my true passions? I hope they can ask themselves these questions and delve deeply into their inner selves.


Editor's Review
Knowing myself allows me to know what I want, and moving towards what I want makes me happy.
Not many people, adults or children, know what they truly want.
Why is this so? Could it be that adults, raised according to the expectations of their parents and those around them, are raising their own children in a similar way, rather than focusing on "what I want to do" or "what I like"? The author uses the theme of "wish" to freshen up this framework of thinking, which we have subtly instilled in us as we grow up.
And it leads children who have lived their lives wishing for others as if they were their own to reflect on themselves.
There are many factors that go into becoming happy, but happiness will come closer when you achieve or have what you truly want.
"My True Wish" contains a simple and clear truth that is often overlooked.


Three Wishes, Genie, and a Humorous Reversal
It is a familiar structure of Charles Perrault's "The Three Wishes" and features the world's most famous genie, a character who grants wishes, making it approachable.
However, the genie in "My True Wish" appears not in Aladdin's lamp, but in a traditional Korean gourd. The traditional patterns engraved on the gourd are symbols that express wishes, giving it a new meaning.

Like "Three Wishes," which makes all three wishes come true, this book, from the child's perspective, doesn't seem to have achieved anything.
But the sight of a child's heart overflowing with joy after easily realizing a hundred or so 'true wishes' that he or she wants to achieve in the future is something that cannot be simply ignored.
The author also provides a fun picture book to read, incorporating humor that will make you burst into laughter in scenes where the genie and the child have different opinions on the last wish.


Colorful expressions with different endings for each story
The world of artist Lee Seon-mi's paintings, as shown in her picture books, changes with each book.
In 『Me and Us』, honest descriptions were used, in 『Long Live Watermelon』, exaggerated expressions were used to match the story that goes back and forth between imagination and reality, and in 『One Quiet Sunday』, a happening that unfolds in an instant was shown with a sense of speed using graphic hand drawings, and 『Ghost Hello』, which set color as the main concept and seems to be immersed in blue darkness and fear, was published in succession.
In this 『My Real Wish』, the author found the connection between the bottle and the genie through ‘smoke’ and chose lines as a way to visualize it.
The process of reimagining the 'genie', which has been depicted in numerous existing books, in his own image must have been both an attempt and a challenge for the author.
This is why we should pay attention to the genie's flexible and rhythmic expression centered around lines, based on the fact that he can freely transform his appearance with magic.


Paratexts infused with delicacy, the true completion of the book.
Elements such as the shape, size, binding, cover, paper, font, layout, cover, and finishing of a book add additional meaning to the main text of a picture book and are called paratexts.
A closer look at the paratext of "My Real Wish" will provide a fresh experience of reading picture books from another perspective.

First, if the front cover was a colorless bottle, the back cover changes into a colored bottle, conveying another layer of the message that this book is a journey for a child to discover his or her own color.
Moreover, the moment the reader holds the cover in his or her hand, he or she will definitely feel a sense of comfort, even if it is subtle.
The reason for the Easy Skin coating, which provides a soft and close-fitting feel, is that since this is a story about the heart, we wanted to provide children with more psychological comfort.
The title text, embossed and pressed to raise the convex shape, emphasizes that finding out your true desires is the coordinate for a happy life.
In addition, through the silk-binding technique, which is done by hand, we take great care to ensure that both pages of picture books featuring illustrations can be opened wide so that the central illustration can be fully appreciated.