Yellow Umbrella

Title: Yellow Umbrella
Format: Hardcover with accompanying CD
Author/Illustrator: Jae-Soo Liu
Composer: Dong Il Sheen
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Pub; Har/Com edition (2002)
Language: English​ / Wordless / song lyrics in Korean
ISBN: 978-1929132362​

This simple story follows colorful umbrellas as they make their way through the streets on a rainy day. The muted colours of the rainy city are broken up by bright splashes of colour that are the umbrellas as seen from above. Who is under each umbrella? Where are they going? On each page, the number of umbrellas increase in number and the accompanying piano music, which the reader is asked to listen to as they "read" the pictures in the book, gets increasingly complex and descriptive. Pages with many circular shapes (a number of open umbrellas around a fountain as seen from above) are accompanied by circular music. A page showing umbrellas waiting for a train attracts music that invokes that train as it passes. Only at the end of the book do the owners of the umbrellas and their destination become revealed.

Reading the book with the music, I felt almost like I was meditating rather than reading a story. I was transported back to the time when my children were small, and I watched them walk to school with their tiny umbrellas waving in the air. I was watching from the 3rd floor above the street, so this book strongly reminded me of this picture, and of the world I lived in - Japan - where children walk together in groups to school. Reading this book gave me a window into Korean culture and I imagined that children walking to school might be a common sight, even on a rainy day. It's a lovely thing that in a world where we worry about every little thing, there are still places in the world where innocence can happen on a daily basis. The simple act of children walking to school together, waving their colorful little umbrellas in the air and perhaps singing a little song - this is what Yellow Umbrella wants to show us.

I did find myself counting umbrellas and noticing colors as I read. As such, you might see this as a good book for introducing colors and numbers to little children. While I think it is that, I don't think it's a classic colour or number book. For one thing, the numbers are not linear. The music starts out "counting" with one line of music for one umbrella and two lines of music for two, but at some stage the music stops counting and starts invoking shape and other elements in the story. I wondered what this book might sound like if the theme of the music were more differentiated, and used more instruments than the piano solo. However I can understand the decision of the author to keep the same theme (based around the song printed in the back of the book) and use a solo instrument - one that is likely to be common in many kindergartens (another side note: every kindergarten teacher I've met in Japan plays piano, because there is at least one piano in every kindergarten).

For students who have never had experience of other cultures, this book is nonetheless a beautifully crated book that interacts well with the accompanying music. Whether or not it would be used as a "read aloud" in kindergartens and schools would be up to the creativity of the teacher and the available time to listen to the music. Two options are given for the music - the "read aloud" version which takes snippets from the music broken up with silence to indicate page turns (THANK YOU for not including a chintzy bell sound), and the full piece of music for each page which would take considerably longer. The song is also included, sung in Korean and translated in English with the sheet music printed. As a mother-child read aloud, I think this book is simply beautiful and would be a good choice for bedtime in order to quiet the mood. While there is very little action in this book, it is a moving depiction of childhood independence in an increasingly controlled world.