Momo is Momo, Toto is Toto

Momo loves Toto so much that she gives him lots of gifts, but Toto just runs away into the house.
Perhaps Momo is a friend who is proactive in expressing her feelings.
Momo's yellow house has a variety of items, including baseball gear, airplane models, telescopes, and planetariums.
It seems like Momo's lively heart contains a vast sky and universe.
Meanwhile, Toto listens to his friend first and asks for his friend's opinion.
Toto's orange house is filled with flowers and plants.
Perhaps Toto is an inner friend who quietly feels the world around him and expresses it through drawings.
Through these conflicts, Momo and Toto, who are so different from each other, learn to think from each other's perspective, open their hearts to each other, and thus accept and respect each other for who they are.


A world created by the blending of individual colors

Besides Momo and Toto, all the characters in this picture book have their own colors.
All of Mr. Panda's things are green, and all of Mr. Squirrel's things are yellow.
Each color can represent our tastes and individuality, or it can represent our very existence.
When you look from afar at the scene where Momo is holding a note and thinking inside the house and then passes through the flower garden to go to Toto, it is a bright and lovely sight with various colors coming together.
We sometimes get disappointed, upset, and fight with each other.
Yet, we understand and accept each other and maintain friendship, love, and trust.
If we look at ourselves from a distance, wouldn't we look bright and lovely?

Momo and Toto, first introduced at the 2019 Bologna Children's Book Fair

Kim Seul-gi, winner of the Anthony Brown Picture Book Contest Grand Prize and the Nami Concours Special Award, was selected as 'Illustrator of the Year' at the 2019 Bologna Children's Book Fair for her illustrations for 'Momo and Toto.'
Momo and Toto in the book don't have much dialogue and little explanation.
But you can convey your feelings with just your eyes and natural gestures.
It must be because Momo and Toto have lived in the author's heart for a long time.
The original drawings of Momo and Toto, which must have been drawn countless times by the author's fingertips, have been painstakingly completed as linoleum prints and are now available to readers outside of the book.