Helen Yoon

Born and raised in California, Helen Yoon writes and draws for a living.

Reviews

Is This . . . Easter?

“These playful, expressive creatures are sure to elicit giggles from little readers. The stylized, pop-eyed, thick-lined illustrations brim with child appeal, but Yoon also folds in a subtle message about compromise; caregivers can help little ones see connections with real-world situations. The layers to this story, combined with delightful art, should earn this tale a prominent place on bookshelves. An instantly rereadable holiday must-have.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Why do we have Easter eggs? What is their purpose? Why do we paint them? None of those questions will be answered in the most hilarious way in Yoon's newest book. A huge bear wearing a tiny set of bunny ears and poofy cotton tail places an egg ever-so-gently on the ground. Two groups of dogs find the egg and commence fighting over what to do with it. Eat it? Or paint it? This seemingly basic story can cause quite the debate in families, human or canine, and Yoon tackles the subject in a humorous way that kids and their adults will enjoy. The illustrations are simple yet expressive in nice spring colors. Again, no definitive answers are given in the book, but both groups of pooches are content in the end. Sort of. A fun Easter romp that tackles a strange tradition, which might prompt a bit of family togetherness searching for answers! A playful boost to holiday collections.”—School Library Journal

Is This . . . Winter?

“Throughout this exuberant kickoff to the Is This...? series, Yoon portrays an amusing dog’s-eye view of Christmas season novelties—yard ornaments. Pulling against a red leash, a small brown pooch in a yellow scarf bounds across a snowy landscape, greeting everything that has a face. “High five! It’s winter!” the rambunctious pup gleefully announces to birds, a painted mailbox, and a squirrel. After a catastrophic collision with a snowperson (“Where’d you—go...?”), the pup encounters holiday yard decorations, much to its confusion. (Addressing a light-up Rudolph, the hound invites, “Would you like to sniff my butt?”) Amid an extravaganza of candy-colored decor, a giant blow-up Santa emanates a “Ho Ho Ho” that sends the protagonist hiding. Employing mixed-media techniques and comic perspectives, Yoon presents the wide-eyed subject’s boisterous personality with confident sketches that capture the small dog’s outsize holiday energy.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“A playful pup—who presumably has never experienced winter before—runs boisterously through the snow, attempting to give high fives to birds, mailboxes, and squirrels. “HOORAY! / It’s finally winter!” There’s endless pouncing and bouncing to do! Unfortunately, a particularly energetic leap onto a snowman leads to confusing results. “WHOOMPH!” Sticks, stones, and snow go flying. The pup looks around in concern. “Where’d you— // go . . . ?” But then, the dog sees something that’s even more confusing: fake reindeer strung with lights; large, garish plastic packages and bows; and an inflatable Santa, who won’t even give a high five. Paw stretched out eagerly, the pup waits. Instead, a mechanical “HO HO HO” rings out. The pup scampers away, cowering behind the human’s legs. Only one logical conclusion can be drawn—"Winter is weird." Yoon infuses the tiny canine hero with swift blurs of motion and large, expressive eyes. The perspective is zoomed in on the pup—the star of the show—limiting the views of the human to only their knees and boots. Against the wintry white space, the feisty pup’s emotions shine. A cleverly imagined romp through new experiences.”—Kirkus Reviews

Have You Seen My Invisible Dinosaur?

“How can one find something that one can’t sense? For this picture book’s narrator, the trouble begins when the invisible dinosaur of the title “had gotten REALLY dirty,” requiring a “big, BIG bath.” But mud made the dinosaur visible, and now that it’s clean, the animal is the very definition of whereabouts unknown. The child, who reads as East Asian and sports a big yellow sun hat, is a picture of industrious and tenacity, laying out a trail of jelly sandwiches (soon eaten by other creatures) and posting “Lost Dinosaur” signs. But they lament that on a “pretty and sunny day”—one without falling rain, snow, or leaves to outline the creature—discovery seems unlikely. Yoon (I’m a Unicorn) depicts forward-moving action with distinctly angular but softly textured, sunlit images composed mostly along a single, minimalist plane, while background information (depicting the ill-advised bath, for example) arrives via spreads ostensibly crayoned and annotated by the child. A joyful reunion ensues when the dinosaur’s jelly-stained mouth emerges from a meadow that seems to sparkle with flowers, proving that a best friend is usually right where one needs them to be.”—Publishers Weekly

“Yoon skillfully spins an adorable tale about an imaginative child, taking readers on a humorous adventure as the child searches for a dinosaur who happens to be invisible. Children with overactive imaginations will easily identify with the struggle. The child explains that the dino got loose during bath time. Dino’s favorite snack is prepared and signs declaring that the invisible dinosaur is lost are posted. It’s all very valiant, but neither works. Then the child summons all the imaginative powers available. In this story, both detailed with the child’s imaginings and intentionally sparse with mixed-media illustrations, readers will absorb a simple yet compelling journey. A solid story time pick for preschoolers, or to use as a prompt for a delightful back-and-forth.”—School Library Journal

“A little girl conducts a tireless search for her invisible dinosaur, who seems to have gone missing in the wake of a bath that washed away all evidence of his existence. Though she prepares platters of her dinosaur’s favorite jam sandwiches and plasters the streets with missing posters, her prehistoric friend fails to materialize. Or does he? The trick of keeping an invisible dinosaur is that you can never quite tell where he’s wandered, especially on a clear day. Without any tracks to follow, the little girl flounders but finds unexpected hope while traversing the natural world around her. Yoon’s minimalist mixed media illustrations and generous use of white space activate the imagination, inviting readers into a hidden world of wonder, with the disappeared dino’s contours revealed by rain sluicing off his back or jam staining his cheeks. The juxtaposition of an endearingly diminutive, spikey-haired protagonist traversing sprawling landscapes recalls spreads from Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. This picture book’s concise word count and conceit of directly addressing the reader make this an excellent interactive pick for a storytime for younger audiences, just make sure there’s enough room for every child’s invisible dinosaur to find a seat.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

I’m a Unicorn

“The narrator of this book makes an adorable entrance through the initial pages: first its horn, then its ears, then the top of its head before declaring “I’m a unicorn.” But are they? While they have one horn, the rest of their features are decidedly bovine. Our poor narrator is thrown into a tailspin as they read a book about unicorns and realize they lack many of their typical features. However, a passing pair of unicorns declares that they can be a unicorn because they have one horn. The identity crisis is neatly settled. Yoon’s artwork is vibrant and expressive. Her small protagonist may not be as sparkly as the other elegant unicorns, but they are chock full of personality. The traditional unicorns are sleek and beautifully posed. There are no backgrounds. The white space allows the reader to focus on the emotions of the large character illustrations.”—School Library Journal

“Just when you think all the unicorn stories have been done, Yoon comes along with this gem. Its protagonist is a young, one-horned cow who is sure that means she’s a unicorn. Her barely contained glee is palpable as she peers over the top of her Unicorns: Facts & Myths book and shares how she most assuredly qualifies. Aside from the number-one criteria of having one (uni- ) horn (corn), she reads that “unicorns have hooves—check!—are very beautiful—why thank you!” Unfortunately, the next items on the list aren’t as encouraging: silky manes, “smell like peach candy,” and “their tears turn into lollipops.” Cow’s eyes begin to water as it dawns on her that she might not actually be a unicorn, and, gosh darn it, the tears that follow aren’t lollipops! Cow’s chagrin is complete when a pair of actual unicorns walks over; but she receives an unexpected boost of confidence from the magnificent creatures. White-page backgrounds amplify Yoon’s simple but highly expressive and hilarious illustrations, and kids will cackle throughout Cow’s dramatic emotional journey.”—Booklist

“Born with just one horn, a saucer-eyed calf decides they’re a unicorn—after all, isn’t that the irrefutable definition in Unicorns: Facts & Myths, a volume that the calf displays to readers? “I’m magical,” says the brown bovine, pirouetting, elated, in crisp white space. But further perusal of the book reveals qualities the protagonist sorely lacks, including a silky mane and the ability to poop rainbows (the latter verified in an extended and sweetly funny potty scene). When two actual unicorns appear—portrayed in the mixed-media art as sparkly, sleek, and self-possessed— the calf abjectly apologizes for being an imposter. But the unicorns are hardly exacting: if you have one horn, you’re one of them. As for not pooping rainbows, a magical parting gift fixes that—“It always works for us,” says one unicorn insouciantly. Yoon’s (Off-Limits) fresh twist on the theme of acceptance is to treat the big moment of acknowledgement not with hugs or celebration, but rather with comic composure—in doing so, offering hope around fears and the bar for belonging.”—Publishers Weekly

“With a gleeful, matter-of-fact smile, our one-horned protagonist—clearly a calf with a single horn—informs us that they are a unicorn. They meet the main criteria, obviously, but the little one’s confidence takes a hit when doing some research. Unicorns apparently poop rainbows, which, despite the variety of veggies and fruits the calf partakes in, is a feat they can’t quite yet manage; unicorns’ manes “flow like silk,” while the puny tuft upon the calf’s head decidedly does not; and unicorns’ tears turn into lollipops, while those of our now despairing narrator remain stubbornly colorless. When the calf encounters real unicorns, the ashamed wannabe apologizes for claiming their magnificence, only to be reassured by the unicorns that a one-horned calf does, indeed, fit the requirements. The blasé confidence of the horned horses is especially amusing in contrast to the narrator’s increasingly frantic self-doubt, and their “all are welcome” message is delivered with a dry, no-nonsense tone that implicitly points to the silliness of some labels. Yoon’s art is simple but effective, with the wide-eyed calf and their heavily tabbed research book set against clean white backgrounds, and when the unicorns finally make their appearance, they bring a riot of color and glitter. Pair this with Young’s A Unicorn Named Sparkle or Hale’s Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn (BCCB 3/21) as a reminder that you don’t need sparkles to be fabulous (though rainbow poop does help).”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred Review

“A magical act of kindness resolves a small creature’s big identity crisis. The narrator of this picture book appears to be a small bull calf with only one horn. After the protagonist reads from a book entitled Unicorns: Facts and Myths, that singular protuberance leads to the joyful titular declaration, “I’m a unicorn!” However, further reading and reflection on the matter soon provoke doubts. The narrator doesn’t “poop rainbows.” Nor do they “sparkle in the sunshine and twinkle in the moonlight,” and their mane does not “flow like silk and smell like peach candy.” After fretting over other self-perceived deficiencies, the narrator spies “REAL unicorns” in the distance and is terribly worried about what they will think of them. While the cartoon-style illustrations help to enhance the humor of the spare story, with the narrator displaying a range of expressions and contrasting sharply with the colorful elegance of the “REAL unicorns,” the resolution may strike some as too quick. It arrives when all concerns are laid to rest when the magical creatures nonchalantly accept the narrator as a unicorn—after all, the protagonist does have only one horn. The unicorns even offer a mysterious orb of a fruit to help with rainbow poops. Still, it’s a clever take on a well-trod topic that should spark conversations on identity. A solid, though not groundbreaking, conversation starter on acceptance and openness.”—Kirkus Reviews

OFF-LIMITS, a Horn Book Magazine Fanfare 2021 selection

SHEEPISH (WOLF UNDER COVER), one of Booklist’s “Editors’ Choice Books for Youth 2021”

Off-Limits

“Yoon (Ball & Balloon, rev. 9/19) uses the drama of the page-turn beautifully, typography is employed creatively, and the book is perfectly paced. The girl’s bliss as her office-supply art creation grows shines through in both text and mixed-media art, and her curiosity and mischievousness are so very relatable. Open the door to this spectacular book and run in.” —The Horn Book, Starred Review

 “Yoon reveals the fun behind closed doors in this comedic, well-designed picture book . . . A combination of stark angles and rounded cartoonish positions energize mixed-media illustrations in this exemplar of childlike curiosity that, with a tender end-of-book reversal, also reinforces the importance of parent-child play.” —Publishers Weekly

“Readers will love observing the child engaging in a familiar rendition of pretend play, and dynamic visuals and playful textual placement will captivate the attention of a range of readers. Work is not always fun, but this enjoyable tale helps remind parents of the joys that come from an uncluttered desk and a variety of available office supplies . . .This is a humorous and accessible story for young readers, and it is especially well suited to families in the throes of work from home.”                —School Library Journal, Starred Review

“Yoon’s digital art is a riot of movement and color as the sturdy lines of an orderly desk give way to arcs, circles, and curlicues, but interestingly the final makeover of the room still holds a fair amount of angled geometry and balance, making the little girl’s final product a work of art and not just a mess to be tidied . . .the text is rather minimal, relying on the dynamic illustrations to convey emotion—which they do with aplomb.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Sheepish

“Amusing and endearing in equal measure, the detailed mixed-media illustrations use light beautifully in the outdoor scenes and effectively in the cafeteria-line picture, where the wolf’s shadow reveals his identity. The straightforward story unfolds with simplicity, wit, and a certain irony based on the sheep's knowledge of the wolf's secret . . . A well-crafted picture book that's great fun for reading aloud.”—Booklist, Starred Review

“Giggle-inducing illustrations depict the wolf helping the sheep wash dishes, do laundry, bake, cut wood, enjoy exercise class and shuffleboard, and read to youngsters . . . This amiable tale comically explores how love and acceptance can turn a dedicated curmudgeon’s stony heart to mush. The dynamic, cartoonish illustrations are the real draw and will capture kids’ chuckling attention. . . . Kids will wolf this one down—and won’t feel sheepish about it.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review