The Color of Water (Color of Earth) [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Dong Hwa Kim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009 | Series: Color of Earth

When Ehwa goes to the town festival, she meets a handsome young wrestler named Duksam who’s eager to catch her eye. After he wins the festival wrestling championship, he and Ehwa begin to meet, sneaking spare moments to be together. But a shadow falls on their romance when Master Cho sends Duksam away and asks for Ehwa’s hand in marriage himself It is then that Ehwa discovers the pain of heartbreak – and that love is always complicated.

 

In the tradition of My Antonia and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, from the pen of the renowned Korean manwha creator Kim Dong Hwa, comes a trilogy about a girl coming of age, set in the vibrant, beautiful landscape of pastoral Korea. 

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–In this installment in the trilogy set in 19th-century Korea, Ehwa falls in love with a strong young man named Duksam, while her mother continues her affair with a traveling salesman. This is a quiet and intimate story about a girl's first sexual awakenings as well as the changing nature of her relationship with her mother during her adolescence. The language and concepts are poetic–Ehwa's mother teaches her that women are like flowers while men are like fire and wind. While Hwa's artwork predominantly conveys a lot of emotion with very few carefully placed lines, there are some larger scenes of natural beauty (flowers, trees, the night sky) that are breathtaking in their detail. A Korean village is a far cry from the environment of most American teens, but the romantic themes will keep even modern girls pining for more of this story. It is not necessary to have read The Color of Earth (Roaring Brook, 2009) to understand this volume, but since readers will probably be curious to learn about Ehwa's first two loves and about what will happen with Duksam in the future, ordering the trilogy is a sound investment.–Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library END

Review

Review in 9/1 Booklist

The story of Ehwa’s maturation and relationship with her mother continues at the stately and symbol-laden pace that marked The Color of Earth (2009). Now in her teens, Ehwa falls in love with a laborer who at first pays her unwanted romantic attention. Meanwhile, Ehwa’s mother’s own love life continues to be one as much of longing as of satisfaction. Excellent storytelling and beautiful artwork make this worthy of the included reading-group discussion guide. Recommended for all graphic-novel collections, this is essential for those that already have the first volume. — Francisca Goldsmith

Review in 12/1 VOYA

In this second installment of the Color Trilogy, teenaged Ehwa learns more about the thrills and the pains of love when she falls for Duksam, a brash and handsome young wrestler. Ehwa lives alone with her young widowed mother, Namwon, in a rural Korean village in the late nineteenth century. As Ehwa pines for Duksam and longs for their secret meetings, her mother waits for visits from her lover, a traveling salesman. Ehwa and Namwon's bond is the core of the book, as they navigate their changing mother/daughter relationship. Although Namwon does not know of Ehwa's feelings for Duksam, she realizes that Ehwa will soon be ready to marry and considers what her life will be like when Ehwa is gone. Ehwa and Duksam's dreams are threatened when Duksam's elderly master, Cho, finds out about Ehwa. Obsessed with Ehwa's youth and beauty, Master Cho is determined to marry Ehwa himself.

Like the first book of this manhwa trilogy, this sequel should appeal to any reader looking for a poetic coming-of-age story or adventurous manga fans. Ehwa's physical and emotional growth is evocatively compared to her natural surroundings. Hwa's expressive artwork and lyrical writing sensitively yet realistically explore romance and sexuality, including Ehwa's first kiss and her first masturbation experience. Humor also pervades the story, especially when Ehwa learns about sex from her more experienced friend Bongsoon.—Amy Luedtke.

Review in 9/1 SLJ

Gr 10 Up–In this installment in the trilogy set in 19th-century Korea, Ehwa falls in love with a strong young man named Duksam, while her mother continues her affair with a traveling salesman. This is a quiet and intimate story about a girl’s first sexual awakenings as well as the changing nature of her relationship with her mother during her adolescence. The language and concepts are poetic–Ehwa’s mother teaches her that women are like flowers while men are like fire and wind. While Hwa’s artwork predominantly conveys a lot of emotion with very few carefully placed lines, there are some larger scenes of natural beauty (flowers, trees, the night sky) that are breathtaking in their detail. A Korean village is a far cry from the environment of most American teens, but the romantic themes will keep even modern girls pining for more of this story. It is not necessary to have read The Color of Earth (Roaring Brook, 2009) to understand this volume, but since readers will probably be curious to learn about Ehwa’s first two loves and about what will happen with Duksam in the future, ordering the trilogy is a sound investment.–Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

Review in 10/1 BCCB

This sequel to The Color of Earth presents what Hwa calls “little gems from my mother’s life at sixteen,” that is, further adventures in love and growing up for Ehwa, the girl of early twentieth-century Korea.  She meets a fascinating new boy, experiences her first kiss, fights with her best friend, learns how to pleasure herself, reflects further on her mother’s relationship with her traveling salesman, and avoids being sold into marriage with an elderly man.  As she grows and develops, she experiences her first conflicts wit her mother as she tries to keep secrets, at the same time learning as much as she can from her mother’s wisdom and life experience.  Ehwa continues to be an appealing protagonist, and the book’s candor about her growth gives her experiences immediacy.  The “little gems” approach compromises the narrative flow somewhat, though, and creates a sometimes tedious repetition of themes, and Ehwa’s obsession with finding and understanding love to the exclusion of any other aspect of daily life becomes attenuated and overwrought.  The art maintains the delicate, luminous quality of the first book, but greater emphasis on quarreling, insecure girls and Ehwa’s various expressions of angst renders the visuals a tad monotonous at times.  The final segment set up the conclusion, however, making this a necessary installment to the trilogy.  Appended is a useful reading group guide that focuses on general techniques for reading graphic novels as well as specific questions covering material from the first two books. 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: First Second (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596434597
• ISBN-13: 978-1596434592
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, September 2, 2009

By 

Tim Lasiuta "Comic Fan 42" (Red Deer, Alberta) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Color of Water (Color of Earth) (Paperback)

kim Dong Hwa has crafted a remarkable trilogy. The Color of Earth, Water and Heaven are a symbolic, poetic, and charming story of Ehwa's coming to womanhood.

It is not graphic. It is not crude. Rather, it unfolds (in the Color of Water) like a delicate flower coming to bloom. Hwa uses flower imagery effectively throughout the books. The art, while understated at times, is truly an extension of the story. Sometimes complex, sometimes simple, Hwa illustrates with a soft touch I appreciate.

In the 2nd volume, three young women experience different levels of the quest for womanhood. One is envied for her upcoming marriage until it is unveiled that her husband is 9 years old. Another, explores the world of boyhood/manhood. Ehwa gradually realizes that the young wrestler she meets is her future husband and must mature in love while her mother experiences her own romance/affair.

This series has been compared to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I heartily agree with that and even go further to suggest that this is destined to be a classic, in any language.

Tim Lasiuta

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flowers and Butterfies, March 6, 2011

By 

Paige Turner "Paige" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color of Water (The Story of Life on the Golden Fields) (Paperback)

Kim Dong Hwa has created a lovely masterpiece with his "Color of Water." This is the second of the trilogy; it has blossomed beautifully just like the lead character Ehwa. The author illustrates in a loving fashion life in rural 19th century Korea through the eyes of Ehwa and her mother. How lovely the landscape pages are! Surrounded by butterflies, flowers and trees, the two women discuss their yearning through metaphors. Ehwa has some awkward moments on the path through adolescence that might offend some very conservative readers. However, Kim Dong Hwa never treats any of Ehwa's sexual awakenings with prurience or explicitness. The budding desires of a young woman are treated with dignity, subtly, and beauty.

I found this volume of the trilogy to be even more insightful and lovely than the first one, perhaps because I had so much emotionally invested after the first book.

Highly recommended- but parents, read it yourself first to determine what age is suitable for your daughter. You will enjoy it yourself even if you decide you want her to wait a few years to read it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming sequel of further adolescence, January 25, 2011

By 

Backroads "Scatter-brained book fan" (Cache Valley, Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Color of Water (The Story of Life on the Golden Fields) (Paperback)

"The Color of Water" takes off where "The Color of Earth" ended and extends the tale of a mother and daughter in a timeless Eastern countryside. A few years have passed, and the strangeness of adolescence has deepened for another tale of these two incredible characters. New loves are found, sex is further explored, and both woman find themselves in an inbetween situation that makes for remarkable storytelling; indeed, Kim has found a more solid plot than the first book that drives plenty of drama and a smidgeon of humor into this world.

Kim is a brilliant storyteller who relies on the contrast of the natural world with the stages of womanhood. It's a lovely idea that works well in this pastoral story that is as much visual as it is literal. The illustrations are gorgeously detailed, and the characters are beautifully drawn. The writing is musing, artsy, and prone to more thought and metaphor than usual dialogue; this may annoy some and please others.

Much of the book revolves around the exploration of sex, both physical and emotional and all in line with where the two women are in their lives. There is plenty of romance, plenty of characterization, and one charming story.

It's a lovely and thoughtful tale and a worthy sequel.