Gorgeous manhwa about female sexuality. This first book in a 3 part series follows Ehwa's discovery and her widowed mother's re-discovery of their sexual feelings.

Kim Dong Hwa's drawings are unbelievably lovely. Paired with his honest, sweet depiction of bodily changes, The Color of Earth is an amazing graphic novel.

Even though Kim Dong Hwa is a male, he writes gracefully and gently about the struggle of women as to how they are seen in society.

Highly, highly recommended. ( )

Summary: This is the story of two women, one a little and the other her young widowed mother. The story focuses on the little girl and her awakening identity as a woman, and also as a side story is her mother who finds love again for the first time since her husband's death. As the back of my book says "first love and second chances."

Comments: This first book in a trilogy follows the little girl from the age of about six to fourteen. It takes place in a small Korean village in a time period unknown, with the only clue to placing it somewhere in the 20th century being a steam or coal engine train. Now, I'll start off by saying this is not the type of book I would normally read *at all*. I am much too conservative to even want to read a book that has the words "s*xual awakening" on the front flap but doing my job as a Cybils panelist I reluctantly set down to give the book a chance.

I can't quite know how to say just how beautiful a story this was. A little girl's curiosity about her body, the difference between boys and girls, grown-up things she over hears and how she goes straight to her mother with her questions and confusion is a tender love story in itself. The mother/daughter relationship presented here is truly touching and really the backbone of this volume. For those wanting a plot there really isn't any. We are touched by the maternal relationship and watch as each of them separately experiences womanhood. The little girl's experiences of finding our about her body, how it's different than a boys, her first period and her first crush on a boy, who is studying to be a monk, are all respectfully portrayed. The mother, who is young and beautiful, suddenly finds that love for a man can touch her heart again when she falls in love with a traveling artist who keeps returning to visit her. There are a couple of incidents in the book that I could have done without but for the most part the material is presented in a decent way, making for a truly touching story.

I also really enjoyed the artwork. The is the first time I've read Korean manga which is called manhwa. I'm not a huge fan of manga artwork as I hate the horrible fake over expressive faces and how all the men look like girls. But this book was not drawn that way at all, aside from the occasional great big mouth to show extreme emotions all the artwork is very realistic and the detailed background scenery in many frames is lovely. The men aslo look like men. I wonder if this is typical of Korean manhwa or just this particular artist's style.

I've fallen for Ewha, the little girl, and I'll be reading the next book for sure. Though I won't commit any further as I'll have to see if the story remains within my boundaries as she gets older. This book, The Color of Earth, is not going to be for everyone but if the topic interests you and you are comfortable with the subject matter then I hope you find the story as touching as I did. I'll end with a lovely little quote the girl says to herself near the end of the book:

"Because I asked something I shouldn't have asked. I heard what I shouldn't have heard. And because I went where I shouldn't have gone, I saw what I shouldn't have seen. How will my young heart cope with all that I've heard and seen?" ( )

Beautiful artwork. But I think I need to read that other two volumes to get a better idea of the story line. While this could be a standalone novel, I think it would be a stronger work if read as a trilogy. ( )

Beautifully drawn story of a young girl growing up in Korea. The first in a projected trilogy. ( )

Summary: Ehwa is a young girl growing up in historical pastoral Korea. She lives with her widowed mother, who runs a tavern. Mother and daughter are close, and as the years pass both of them search for love and fulfillment.

Review: The back of this graphic novel describes it as rural, intimate, and tender. All of these things are true. "The Color of Earth" is a glimpse into a “timeless” Korea untouched by modernity or the western world. There is simply Ehwa and her mother’s little village and their small world, which circles around their love for each other and their encounters with romance. It’s a quiet but refreshing read, held together by a very Asian aesthetic where every flower and moment has a meaning.

"The Color of Earth" is a homage to women, a tribute to Kim’s mother’s generation and her mother’s generation. It’s contemplative on what it means to be a woman without a man in a society where women are supposed to be on the arm of a man. Ehwa’s mother does have a romance and Ehwa herself experiences her sexual awakening, but at the end of every day it is these two women who come together and enrich each other’s lives. Kim talks a lot about women and uses flower and nature metaphors to describe the hearts and minds of women. On one hand, it’s very poetic. On the other hand, I can’t shake off the feeling that his is an outsider point of view, that he’s ascribing to women what he thinks women are like, which may or may not be what they are actually like. All writers do this to some extent when they write about what they have no experience of, but "The Color of Earth" is so rife with discussions of femininity that I feel like I have to point it out lest anyone take his observations about women as gospel truth.

Still, it’s a lovely, graceful tale.

Conclusion: Don’t take Kim’s insights into the interior lives of women as complete truth, but enjoy his story for what it is: a slice of a life few of us get to see. ( )