Wish Soup : A Celebration of Seollal

The North American author-illustrator picture book debut from Jungwha Park about the Korean celebration of Seollal, or Lunar New Year, and one eight-year-old's quest to eat enough bowls of rice cake soup to become a "big girl."

Celebrate Korean Lunar New Year and join one child’s quest to eat enough bowls of soup to become a “big girl!”

Sohee’s favorite part of Seollal is tteokguk—the special Korean rice cake soup traditionally only enjoyed on New Year’s Day. Each bowl is said to make the person who eats it one year older. This year, Sohee wants to eat as many bowls as she can to finally be an eonni, or “big girl,” to her younger siblings and cousins. Before Sohee can even get to her first bowl, though, she’s interrupted by a series of holiday-related chores, leaving plenty of opportunity for her mischievous younger sister Somi to eat not only Sohee’s tteokguk, but their whole family’s! Despite this outrageously silly setback, Sohee eventually learns that being a big girl is more than just how many bowls of tteokguk you eat. 

This funny story of a child’s journey to discover what it really means to be a big girl explores the traditions of Korean Lunar New Year and the value of family and helpfulness.