One Day by Lee Juck and Kim Seung-youn, translated by Asuka Minamoto and Dianne Chung is a lyrical exploration of one child’s grief after his grandfather passes away.

After his grandfather dies suddenly, a young boy does everything he can to cope with his feelings of sadness and confusion. Why did the kid’s grandpa leave without saying goodbye? Grandpa’s shoes are still in the closet and his clothes still smell like him, but Grandpa is not here to wake up the young boy in the mornings or pick up his name stamp from the stationary store. "Grandpa is gone," a phrase that’s repeated like a mantra throughout the book, and he’s never going to return.

The illustrations alternate between light and dark spreads depending on the text’s focus. Usually when Grandpa is visually on the page (but "Grandpa is gone"), the scene is the latter of the two, showing the boy’s grandfather encased in darkness with Grandpa obscured in some way (he’s facing away from the reader, he’s too far away to see, etc.). The lighter spreads feature the boy going about his day as he copes with the loss. The final spread opens into a large, dark gatefold where the young boy and his grandfather can exist in the same space, even just for a little while.

One Day published from Enchanted Lion Books in November 2021.

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