Song Mi-kyung, the acclaimed author who has risen to fame with numerous prestigious domestic and international awards—including the White Raven Award and the BBK Children’s Book Council of Korea’s “Happiest Book in Korea” Award—and illustrator Lee Soo-yeon have joined forces for the first time to create the picture book “Today’s Coat,” which is now officially published.

If you’ve ever had the experience of treasuring something so much that you ended up never using it before discarding it—or if you’ve ever held someone dear yet hesitated to get close, only to drift apart in the end—then “Today’s Coat” will resonate deeply with you. Love requires courage: the courage to sincerely express what you hold dear, the courage to embrace something even when you know it will grow old, wear out, or lose its original form, and still use it wholeheartedly and enjoy it to the fullest. It is precisely in those moments when you do not hoard what you love but instead savor it fully, embrace it completely—that single moment remains deeply etched in your heart long after time has passed, never fading away.

Perhaps those memories are all I truly possess.
“Today’s Coat” is a story about “relationships”: about being there for one another, about growing together through mutual understanding and compromise, and about how, even as things grow worn over time, they become all the more beautiful.

Author’s Note:
I write these words with the hope that children will be able to fully savor today’s laughter, today’s sleep, today’s food, today’s play, and today’s love.

“In Today’s Coat,” a story with a unique narrative structure that alternates between Yuli’s inner monologue and the coat’s inner monologue, begins with the coat gazing at Yuli through the narrow crack in the slightly open closet door. Since the day it first met Yuli, the coat has been waiting endlessly in the closet, its patience stretching into an indefinite future. How much it longs for Yuli to take it out of the closet and wear it today—just to step outside for a walk! If it suddenly starts raining, the coat could shield her from every drop; on a windy day, Yuli would fasten its buttons and pull up its hood, and the coat would wrap her in warmth; if she runs freely, the coat’s hem would flutter in the breeze, laughing along with her. How wonderful it would be if they could bask in the sunlight together every day and watch the sunset side by side! In the dimly lit closet, the coat dreams of the moments it could share with Yuli.

But what about Yuli’s feelings? Every time she opens the closet door, the coat catches her eye—but each time, she tells herself firmly that she will never wear it. What if it gets soaked in the rain? What if a strong wind blows it away? She dreads the thought of the coat wearing out, developing holes, losing buttons, or picking up stains that can’t be washed away.

Yuli and the coat cherish each other deeply, yet they seem to be moving in opposite directions. Can they truly understand one another’s hearts?

If you hold someone too dear and dare only to watch from afar, is that really love?

One day, Yuli’s mother suggests giving the coat—a garment that has been stored in the closet unused—for years—to her cousin. Seizing the moment when Yuli opens the closet door, the coat slips out of the house. Filled with hope that Yuli will remember its feelings, it carefully leaves a single button behind on the chair.

How will Yuli feel when she discovers that the coat she treasured so much she could only gaze at it has quietly disappeared? And during the days when the coat wanders in the outside world, battered by wind and rain, torn and tattered, what kind of journey does it undergo?

When Yuli finally finds the coat she had been searching for, now disheveled and hanging on the cherry tree in the front yard, she puts it on for the first time—with cautious care.

“The coat fits me perfectly.”
“Yuli fits me perfectly.
I’ve been waiting for this day.”
— Excerpt from the text

“Today, we are together.”
Through a tender collaboration of words and illustrations, the story delicately bridges the gap between Yuli and the coat—two beings who yearn to draw closer for the same reason yet feel pulled apart by opposing emotions.

Author Song Mi-kyung excels at crafting unique fantasy stories that resonate with universal human emotions. In “Today’s Coat,” she gives both Yuli and the coat their own voices, drawing readers straight into the heart of the story. The coat’s earnest longing to spend time with Yuli and Yuli’s resolute determination to keep the new coat pristine build up layer by layer, repeating and intensifying until the moment when their bodies and souls finally align, creating an emotional impact that transcends the everyday.

The warmth of “Today’s Coat” is also deeply rooted in its delicate, symbol-laden imagery. Illustrator Lee Soo-yeon meticulously depicts every detail of Yuli’s room: the layered photo frames, the dollhouse with its interior fully visible, the various pieces of furniture, and even the wallpaper patterns—all rendered with rich, intricate detail. Throughout the story, the illustrator subtly incorporates Yuli’s closest doll friend into every scene where Yuli appears, weaving in a narrative thread that contrasts sharply with Yuli’s attitude toward the coat.

Although Yuli sometimes lets her dolls sleep in the closet, she never keeps them locked away out of fear that they might grow old or break. On the contrary, she lets them sit at the table with her, enjoying snacks together, and when she needs a companion to sleep with, she always holds the doll close as she drifts off. Even when she finally finds the coat she thought was lost and tries it on for the first time, Yuli seems eager to share her joy, inviting the doll to sit on the bench beside her.

As for the scene where the long-lost coat finally returns to Yuli’s front yard, the image of a flock of small birds gently carrying the coat evokes the little bird depicted on the closet door—a bird that has been quietly keeping watch inside the closet all along.

“Yuli will grow up soon. I’ll grow older, but that’s okay.”
“One day, the coat will become too small for me, but that’s okay too.”
— Excerpt from the text

Song Mi-kyung (Author)
She was awarded the 2nd Youngjae Munhak Prize for Children’s Literature for “The School Where Kids Who Don’t Want to Go to School Go,” the 54th Korean Publishing Culture Award for “A Certain Child,” and the 5th Changwon Children’s Literature Award for “The Child Who Chews Stones.” Her published works include “The Controversy Over the Home-School Communication Book,” “Hamlet and I,” “When Walking Through the Misty Forest,” “When Wandering in a Dream,” “Teacher Susu the Little Mouse,” and “Today’s Coat,” among others. She has also written and illustrated her own books, such as “I Turned into a Rabbit” and “Today’s Dog, Tomorrow’s Bird.”

Recent works include “This Is a Secret!,” “Today’s Coat,” and “When Wandering in a Dream,” bringing her total number of published works to 82.

Lee Soo-yeon (Illustrator)
She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in the UK with a master’s degree in illustration. She currently teaches at the education department of the Hankyoreh newspaper, where she is responsible for courses on picture books and graphic novels.
Her self-written and self-illustrated works include “It’s Raining, and the Grass Is Growing,” “On a Moonlit Morning,” and “The Scent That Embraces Me.” Among these, “Two Friends on My Shoulder” was selected for the 2023 White Ravens International Catalogue of Outstanding Children’s Books, and “Furniture Sales That Began by Chance” was selected for the 2025 AFCC Illustrators’ Gallery. In addition, she has provided illustrations for books such as “The Back of the Gorilla” and “Our Village Guest,” and “You Are All My Seasons” was selected for the 2022 AFCC.
Recent works include “It’s Raining, and the Grass Is Growing,” “Furniture Sales That Began by Chance,” and “The Scent That Embraces Me,” bringing her total involvement in creative projects to 34.