the color of earth

the color of earth
the color trilogy #1
kim dong hwa
graphic novel/romance/ya
first second
published 2009

First love is never easy.    Ehwa grows up helping her widowed mother run the local tavern, watching as their customers – both neighbors and strangers – look down on her mother for her single lifestyle.  Their social status isolates Ehwa and her mother from the rest of the people in their quiet country village.  But as she gets older and sees her mother fall in love again, Ehwa slowly begins to open up to the possibility of love in her life.   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.

This was quite the coming of age story that pretty much every female can relate to.  Ehwa is sweet, curious and intelligent and that is mostly, I think, because her mother treats her as a confidante.

The story is lovely, the art is beautiful and clean.  I wasn't sure if I would like it, thinking it might be too much steeped in 'olden times', but it was a subject matter that is timeless.  The writing is at times poetic, but funny and real.  I found myself steeped deeply into the words, pouring over the pages and so glad I have all three books in my hand to read!