
When Success Sneaks up on You: Maya and the Turtle A Korean Fairy Tale
{Guest post by John Stickler}
We didn’t know our book was competing for an international prize… and then it won!
Until we were notified by our publisher that we were winners, my wife and I had never heard of the Morning Calm Award for children’s books. It is an annual prize program founded and conducted by the librarians at the 15 international schools in South Korea.
Over the summer the librarians select English-language books in four age categories, elementary through high school, and stock multiple copies in each school. The books are introduced to the students at the beginning of the school year and they are given eight months to read them. In April they vote for their favorite. Most of the authors and publishers around the world have no idea their titles are even in the competition.
Our picture book, Maya and the Turtle: A Korean Fairy Tale, had a bit of an advantage in this race. Although the international schools are taught entirely in English, and these students are being prepared for college in the U.S. and elsewhere, they are mostly of Korean heritage. Maya’s tale is a classic lesson in filial piety, respect for one’s parents, presented in an engaging Cinderella story. In an effort to save her father’s life a young girl volunteers to face death in the form of a deadly giant centipede. Fortunately, thanks to a magical turtle, all ends well.
The librarians assigned our book to grades 4-6, up against three other new titles by better-known authors. Across all schools, Maya was the most popular in that age group and hundreds of students awarded her the international Morning Calm Medal.
The winning authors and illustrators receive award certificates by mail and the publishers receive artwork for a nifty foil medallion to print and stick on their winning book covers.
Then, A Multicultural Audiobook was Born
Although our publisher, Tuttle, produced both hardcover and eBook editions of Maya, they had not considered an audiobook of this title. Given its proven popularity my wife and I negotiated with Tuttle to obtain the audio rights and set out to become audiobook producers. We knew who we wanted to narrate it.
Talulah Shadrick is a talented Californian, age 12, who always knew she would be an actress. At age six she appeared on stage and by eight qualified to join the Screen Actors Guild. Her credits include a Toyota TV commercial, a voiceover for a Nintendo game, and a recurring role on the last season of the popular cable TV program “Veep.”
The first children’s book blogger to review the 11-minute audiobook called Talulah “amazing;” our talented tween.
Soma’s mother, T.M. Song, was a storyteller and this is a tale she used to tell her four daughters when Soma was a little girl. Her mother had told it to her when she was growing up in a small village in Korea. As co-author Soma told me what to write and also did all the lovely watercolor illustrations. She is a fine arts graduate of the California College of the Arts and has illustrated three children’s books. She’s a charter member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
I reported the news from Seoul for nine years for the CBS radio network and am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
To see a 99-second trailer for the book just visit YouTube and enter Maya and the Turtle.
To hear a one-minute free sample of Talulah, or order an mp3 download of the book, visit: https://www.libro.fm/audiobooks/9781518916243
Maya and the Turtle: A Korean Folk Tale is available via Libro.fm (audiobook), illustrator Soma Han’s website, Amazon, and Tuttle Publishing.
About The Author and Illustrator
Author John C. Stickler

Author John C. Stickler
As a student at Yale University, John C. Stickler spent most of his time on the Yale Daily News, ending up as a senior editor. Despite the diversion, he graduated as honors major in sociology and returned home to Tucson, Arizona. The U. S. Peace Corps had accepted his application and assigned him to the Philippines, but his draft board felt that as a conscientious objector he was unfit for Peace Corps service.
The battle over his destiny ended up with his assignment to a Military Advisory Group at UN Command Headquarters in South Korea. Taking his discharge in Seoul, he established one of the first advertising agencies in that country, assisting Korean firms with their exports and tourism development. At the same time, he filed regular news reports for the CBS radio network.
After a decade in Seoul, John and his wife, fine artist Soma Han, and their two boys returned to the States, settling in California. Purchasing a national business magazine, he began a career in publishing, editing, journalism, and corporate public relations. During the 1990s he began writing books for Fodor’s, Berlitz, and the Asian Sources Media Group in Hong Kong.
For several years he was editor and publisher of The Mature Traveler, a national newsletter. In 2003 John and Soma joined forces with Shen’s Books to publish Land of Morning Calm: Korean Culture Then and Now. The title was subsequently selected by Skipping Stones Magazine for its annual Honor Award.
They teamed up again to write and illustrate Maya and the Turtle: A Korean Fairy Tale, a story passed down through the Han family by Soma’s grandmother. The picture book was published by Tuttle and in 2014 awarded an international Morning Calm Medal, voted #1 by students at international schools across South Korea. Today they live near the artist colony of Tubac in Southern Arizona.
Illustrator Soma Han
Soma Han was born in the rural southeastern corner of Korea in a house with a roof thatched with rice straw. Moving to Seoul for high school and college, she studied art under Korea’s foremost sculptor and artist Lee Il Young before being accepted at one of the leading art schools in the USA. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California College of the Arts. Her watercolors have been exhibited in galleries from Arizona, New York City, Washington, D.C., and California to Mexico, Hong Kong, and Korea.
In 1999 Soma was commissioned by Shen’s Books to illustrate a collection of Korean proverbs, Tigers, Frogs, and Rice Cakes. The picture book was named by the California Department of Education to its “recommended reading list” for use in schools statewide.
In 2003 she illustrated and co-authored her second book on Korea for young readers, Land of Morning Calm: Korean Culture Then and Now. This nonfiction title was selected by Skipping Stones Magazine for its 2005 Honor Award in the multicultural and international category. When Lee and Low acquired Shen’s in 2013, they introduced a paperback edition and the title began a new life educating youngsters about “The Hermit Kingdom.”
Maya and the Turtle is her third children’s book, a family story told by her grandmother many years ago. The picture book was originally published by Tuttle and, in 2014, it was voted the annual Morning Calm Medal by students at 13 international schools across South Korea. Learn more about Soma’s work via her website, somahan.org