In clothes and in heart
The day the stain appears

Nam Gaemi, a writer who runs a laundromat, looked at the endlessly spinning washing machine and thought, “How nice would it be if I could wash my heart every day?”
Inspired by that idea, "Mind Washing" begins with Rami standing in front of a mirror wearing new clothes.
A child who goes out feeling good experiences a series of absurd things.
You get hit by bird droppings, arrive at the playground but your friends are gone, and then it starts raining and you fall down while trying to avoid the rain.
My new clothes are dirty and I feel terrible.


The small dark clouds are getting bigger and the raindrops are getting heavier, but on the other hand, Rami is getting smaller.
The growing dark clouds metaphorically express Rami's upset mood.
Everyone has days like this.
A day when you need to wash your mind like you wash your clothes.


Sweet sweet sweet
Should I try to cleanse my mind?

Rami bursts into tears, but doesn't know exactly why.
It's not because my new clothes are dirty, it's not because of bird droppings, it's not because I don't have any friends at the playground, Rami says, getting soaked in the pouring rain.
Usually, feeling bad isn't due to just one reason.
Complex situations leave stains on the mind and bring tears to the eyes.


Rami goes into the forest to avoid the rain and falls into an unknown deep place.
That was Rami's heart.
In my mind, which spins like a washing machine, Rami is being washed round and round with small stains.
Then I encountered a huge stain on my heart.
Rami doesn't avoid the stain, but dabs it and then gently rubs it.
The black spots gradually turn white, and a smile appears on Rami's face.


Negative thoughts do not disappear by avoiding them.
If you carefully examine and nurture those feelings, they can fade and then resolve.
Just like when Rami encountered a large, unfamiliar stain, instead of running away in fear, she petted it and played with it.

See again and see again
Enriched with post-reading activity sheets and teaching materials

"Mind Washing" is author Nam Gaemi's first picture book, but the author is a picture book education expert who runs a picture book havruta for adults every month.
So, unlike the first book, it has a solid structure and it is fun to find elements hidden throughout the illustrations.
The pictures are full of things that you can see again and again if you look closely at them several times, such as the raindrops that represent Rami's upset feelings, the shadows that show the extent of her loneliness, the various expressions of the stains, the props and clothes hanging out in the empty playground that remind you of laundry, and the final playground scene where those clothes are connected.


This book also includes a follow-up activity sheet called 'A Spoonful of My Own Detergent to Erase the Stains of the Heart.'
This is an activity where you think about the words, situations, and actions that leave stains on your heart and find out what your own detergent is that can erase those stains on your heart.
Scan the QR code on the back cover to receive not only the reading activity sheet but also teaching materials for teachers.
It consists of two class materials that examine the changes in facial expressions depending on the character's feelings, write notes to the character, and look into one's own feelings.
Let's read and enjoy picture books even more with post-reading activity sheets and teaching materials created by current elementary school teachers.