Kiss
By: Cho Sunkyung
Publisher: SOMEbooks, Korea, 2015 (Pictured is the fourth edition, 2021)
Format: Half-hardback
Love at first kiss
What's in a kiss? In this wonderful silent book by Cho Sunkyung, the reader gets to decide the answer. Kiss has a very clever construction: Two hardback books bound together with their openings facing each other. When you open the book you will see creatures facing each other in a kiss. You, the reader, are free to decide who will meet, and the book lets you create all kinds of warm, funny, cute, scary and original encounters.
The artwork is stunningly beautiful: Black and white pictures like silhouettes of a snake, a shark, a gorilla, a goldfish, a frog, a stone and many more. The creature's eyes are in focus, giving the feeling of "love at first glance" at every spread, no matter how unthinkable the connection is.
Besides being a work of art, Kiss can also be read as an important message: Love blurs the borders we set up for what connections might be seen as appropriate. Faced with love, our differences are no longer important, a true connection can happen between anyone.
Cho Sunkyung is a well-known Korean illustrator, educator and publisher. His publishing house, SOMEbooks, is like a treasure chest of amazing silent books, all of very high quality. Kiss is bound in SOMEbooks signature thick, cardboard cover, that serves two purposes: It gives the reader a pleasant tactile experience, and it is sturdy enough to be handled by children without breaking. We will be presenting many more titles from SOMEbooks at Readsilentbooks in the months to come.
