Blending luscious illustrative messages about patience, Ilsan-based writer Georgia Scott has recently released “Worth the Wait,” a children’s book tailored for English teachers here.

It will be the first book of a trilogy created by the former New York Times art director, in collaboration with Korean native Sol Lee.

“Worth the Wait,” a story about the value of waiting, began when Scott spoke with Sol Lee, a student in Scott’s adult English class.

“She illustrates, but she didn’t introduce herself as an illustrator, only a person who wants to be an illustrator. I wanted to challenge her,” Scott said. “I wanted to do something that would allow me to work with her style of drawing.”

Scott already has several other illustrated children’s books under her belt. Having gained inspiration for her next project from Lee, she also knew she wanted to help English teachers with this project.

Coming up with the idea of writing a children’s book to accomplish these goals, Scott began interviewing various English teachers in both Korea and Japan on what they wished to see in a children’s book.

Many English teachers told Scott that they wanted more books that would get children moving and books that expanded into a variety of different areas.

Additionally, Scott herself said that one of the most difficult aspects of teaching a foreign language was teaching concepts. Keeping these goals and issues in mind, Scott and Lee came up with three main concepts, one for each book in the trilogy ― patience, danger and love ― conceptually difficult but also broadly applicable topics.

With the goal of helping English language learners in mind, Scott will typically introduce a word and repeat it multiple times in the book to teach new vocabulary, a nod to famous children’s author Dr. Seuss’ style.

“Dr. Seuss is truly timeless and, in his stories, he typically introduces words and repeats it over and over. I wanted to write the book in the vain of Dr. Seuss in that sense,” said Scott.

To further help kids learn new words, each page of the book is filled with vivid, colorful illustrations of animals, plants, landscapes and people. Illustrations used in the book are also available on www.iamgeorgiascott.com, where children can download the drawings and color them in themselves.

“Overall, I just want children to have fun with it. Also, as a New Yorker, we have an ‘if you can think it you can do it’ mentality,” Scott said.

“Creative people have a difficult time being accepted, especially in Korea. I wanted to show through this work with Sol that you can be happy, create a project and see it through. You don’t need to hide in the shadows. I hope that that resonates with people.”

“Worth the Wait” is currently available on Amazon and at independent book stores in Korea. The second book of the trilogy, about danger, is expected to be released in the fall and the third book, about love, around Valentine’s Day.

By Moses Kim, Intern reporter (myk@heraldcorp.com)