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"The Obama Story," a comic bio series in English, published by Dasan Books. |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Comic strips were once branded as being just for fun. But today educators and parents are turning to them as a new tool to reach struggling children.
In the Korean publishing market, educational comic books are flourishing as a new field that can grab children, parents and educators with its innovative ways of teaching and reading.
A comic bio series in English published by Dasan Books, a local publishing company, has been adopted as supplementary textbooks at a U.S. elementary school in New Jersey.
The New Jersey Fort Lee Elementary School announced it will use "The Obama Story," "The Bill Gates Story" and "The Charles Darwin Story" for history, social studies and bilingual education classes for the second half of this year. The three books are part of the comic biography series aimed at third to sixth graders.
Dasan Books established an extra branch office directed by Woo Jae-o, general manager in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in February 2009 to enter the United States market.
According to the publisher, six volumes, including ones about Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Hilary Clinton, have been published. By August, volumes on Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Stephen Hawking will be released. The comic biography series is available in some nations in North America and Asia via online bookstores.
"The Obama Story" at 200 pages and full of color targets children aged 8 to 12. It sheds light on Barack Obama's life from his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia through his Ivy League education and his election last year.
"The Obama Story" is on front table displays in major bookstores in the U.S. and advertised in trade magazines and newspapers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The company also plans to market the titles aggressively to the school and library market.
The publisher will release 50 biographies over the next 18 months. Dasan Books is one of the top five publishers in Korea.
The popularity of the educational comic books actually begun with "Why?'' ― the Korean science comic book series that saw more than 20 million copies sold last year, setting a new record in the local publishing industry.
As the representative book published by the YeaRimDang, the local publisher specializing in children's books, the series paved the way for the format to become a successful learning tool.
The 50-volume science comic book series is aimed at kindergarten children and elementary school students.
The series deals with various educational themes ― plants, Earth, computers, dinosaurs, chemistry, information and communications, and blood types ― mixed with interesting and eye-catching illustrations.
At first 10 volumes were published with a Korean title in 1989, becoming a steady seller with one million copies sold by 1998. But to keep up with the fast-changing publishing trend, the publisher changed the name of the series into the English title, ``Why?'' in 2001, eyeing the overseas markets after three years of research.
The first book in the series, ``Outerspace,'' was published in 2001 and the 50th and final book, ``Scientific Events," was introduced to the public in January.
Copyrights to the series have been sold to China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and France through various international book fairs. The number of copies published in other countries has surpassed more than 1.3 million. The company is currently negotiating with the U.S. and Japan to publish the series there.
 The series has expanded its horizons from nature and science to human studies, Korean history and world history.
Following the comic strips' success, "Mabeop Cheonjamun" (Magical Cheonjamun) consisting of 18 volumes published by Owl Book is also setting a record as educational comic books. It teaches basic Chinese letters through comic characters.
Some 12 million copies of the book series have been sold since its first volume was printed in November in 2003.
The series revolves around Sun Wukong, a monkey king from the 16th-century Chinese novel "Journey to the West," who can spell magic words.
The Owl Book will publish the science comic strip series comprised of 100 volumes and expand the comic book series to English, mathematics and social studies.
 Also, renowned film translator Lee Mi-do has joined the recent trend of the cartoon-format education books by launching "I Scream for Ice Cream," illustrated by Choi Jin-gyu. The book focuses on English grammar.
The story revolves around familiar characters such as Snow White, who is now a grandmother with seven happy children.
The names of the seven children are Gregory, Robin, Amy, Martha, Matthew, Alpha and Robo. The first letters of their names spell GRAMMAR. Grandmother Snow White loves to help the children learn English by having fun when learning grammar.
There is also a witch who cannot speak English. One day, she goes to visit her sister who is very sick. However, she runs into some trouble at the airport in New York. She cannot speak English so they will not let her into the country. So she devises a plan to make trouble for anyone who speaks English well.
So far, three volumes of the "I Scream for Ice Cream" series have been published.
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr |
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무디스, 스페인·伊·포르투갈 신용등급 강등
