Story Description:
*Pick up order a Yumi and Monster copy wherever books are sold!
Little Yumi loves to run, jump, and play. But all this changes when a mysterious monster quietly appears, just as Yumi's body begins to feel slow and weak. Afraid and unsure, Yumi does her best to avoid Monster. It takes an unforgettable journey through the snowy woods for Yumi to understand what Monster wants...and for Yumi to learn to embrace a new kind of life.
Yumi and Monster is inspired by disability advocate, artist, writer, and Asian American adoptee Kam Redlawsk's own experience living with a rare degenerative muscle-wasting disease that has been gradually making her immobile. With stunning original art, this modern fairy tale will inspire everyone who has faced illness, loss, or any life situation that seems insurmountable.
Come take a journey into the emotions we feel when faced with unexpected challenges-and discover the beauty, magic, and adventure that lie beyond fear, in ourselves.
About the Author:
Kam Redlawsk is a multi-award-winning disabled industrial designer, artist, rare disease and disability advocate, traveler, writer, consultant, and speaker, born in South Korea, raised in Michigan, thriving in California. She's also a Korean American adoptee. Kam is a self-taught illustrator. Yumi and Monster is her children's book debut as author and illustrator. You are invited to visit Kam at kamredlawsk.com.
Follow me for Yumi and Monster book updates and events, mini-memoirs, art, wheelchair travels, and disability and accessibility musings on Instagram at instagram.com/kamredlawsk.
Where to find Yumi and Monster:
ISBN: 978-1-4549-6317-2
Order @ Bookshop.org
Order @ Hachette Book Group
Pick up a copy at ANY local, indie, or mainstream bookstore. Search “Yumi and Monster” in your city. *I encourage supporting indie bookshops like Bookshop.org or your local bookstore. Yumi and Monster is also available at all mainstream stores like Barnes&Noble, Target, and Amazon. :)
*International: search “Yumi and Monster” to find my book in your country and Amazon.
Yumi and Monster Reviews:
Booklist Starred Review: Yumi is an active girl who loves to "run, climb, dance, and skip,” but “her parents and doctors told her that soon that would change.” One day, Yumi spots a creature outside her bedroom window, and “from the moment Monster came, her body began to feel different. She was tired and slow.”
Yumi ignores Monster, but, as Yumi’s strength declines, Monster stays a constant and supportive presence. Still, Yumi accosts him, pointing her new pink cane, “You make me feel bad! Ever since you’ve been around, my legs don’t work like they used to.” Monster suggests the two explore the woods, and the snowy outing proves surprisingly fun. “For a moment, all her anxious thoughts were still.” Yumi eventually embraces Monster’s presence, acceptance leading to a peaceful coexistence: “I am only me because of you,” they each whisper. Animation-style images feature soft-edged and grayscale forest scenes from which Yumi’s fuchsia hair and cane boldly pop. Horns on Yumi’s hoodie echo sweet Monster’s benign appearance, and the metaphor of him as a shadow companion representing a potential range of conditions is highly effective. A deeply personal note reveals the author-illustrator’s direct connections to Yumi’s experience and solidifies this emotional journey as an authentic and empathetic representation of chronic illness and disability for any childhood collection.
―Booklist, STARRED Review, August 15, 2025
OWL Award: Beautifully written, exquisitely illustrated, and quietly brave. Yumi and the Monster honors disability with honesty and hope, showing kids that courage can look like softness, patience, and asking for help. It’s a beautiful invitation to build empathy and start meaningful classroom conversations.
After months of reading, scoring, and spirited debate, narrowing hundreds of publisher submissions to a longlist and then a razor-sharp shortlist, we’re thrilled to unveil the 2025 OWL (Outstanding Works of Literature) Awards Winners.
These titles rose to the top for one reason: they don’t just inform, they move people to act. The OWL Awards honor books that pair big ideas with real-world usefulness. Our book experts evaluated each contender for the ones that shape decisions, strengthen teams, elevate instruction, and build shared understanding across communities. To win an OWL is to join an esteemed circle of authors whose work sparks discussions today and measurable change tomorrow.
Kirkus Full Review: A young girl embarks on a journey of perceptive acceptance as she faces a debilitating illness.
Sporting a flouncy skirt and shiny striped boots, exuberant, red-haired Yumi loves to “run, climb, dance, and skip.” The appearance of oversize Monster, whose striped horns echo Yumi’s horned hoodie, coincides with the child’s growing fatigue and weakness until she needs a cane for support. “No matter what, he was always there.” And yet Monster tries to “make her happy, make her laugh.” She accepts his invitation to explore, hoping to lose him in the snowy woods. But Monster always finds her, then helps, encourages, and soothes her. When he accidentally drops her on the ice, she banishes him, only to regret her harshness. His return becomes an acknowledgment of their symbiotic relationship: “I am only me because of you,” both agree. Artist and disability advocate Redlawsk is a cinematic creator, working mostly in layers of black and white with vibrant color bursts for poignant emphasis. Her vulnerable author’s note reveals that Monster is GNE myopathy, a form of muscular dystrophy “that follows me around.” She notes that she and Yumi are both adoptees; she chose the name Yumi to reflect their shared Korean and Japanese heritage and also because the name “sounds like ‘you and me’ in English.” Now nearing complete immobility, Redlawsk adds, “This is my first book, and it’s the last I will be able to illustrate.”
A stirring story of strength and resilience.
―Kirkus, Oct 9, 2025
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Full review: When the monster shows up at Yumi's window, everything changes: day after day, the creature stands outside at the edge of the forest, and day after day, Yumi begins to feel weaker, struggling sometimes to play games or even to dress herself. Despite the monster's loveable appearance, Yumi is sure this must all be his fault, and so she finally accepts his incessant invitation to explore the forest, hoping to lose him in the woods and return home alone. But it's difficult to navigate the terrain with her cane and she's soon exhausted, so rather than giving the monster the slip, she allows him to carry her and cozies up to his fluffy, gentle warmth. She's terribly shocked, then, when he accidentally drops her, and now, having been failed by both her body and her friend, how will she get home? Not all children will immediately understand the story's connection to chronic illness, but many will have experienced their own defining moment of a changing reality, one that before was safe and familiar but becomes uncertain and strange in the after.
Perspective plays a key role in the black-and-white digital art, with bird's-eye views contrasting with close-ups to create visual and emotional resonance. This is not a sad book, nor does it present Yumi's illness as something to overcome or even be resigned to; instead, it makes the monster her companion and helper, working together to make a fulfilling and happy life. This sentiment comes through with crystal clarity in the final scene, with Yumi's red cane now replaced by a wheelchair, and the heart sewn on her pillow that was broken in earlier scenes now fully healed and whole. A deeply personal afterward details Redlawsk's experience with GNE Myopathy, a type of muscular dystrophy.
-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July 29, 2025
Publishers Weekly:
Debut Picture Book Creator Personifies Health Journey in 'Yumi and Monster'
In a race against the clock, with an eye toward Redlawsk's decreasing mobility, the book was completed just in time. "I can no longer grasp a pen," the author said. "That's what's unique about a progressive disability; you are always losing. And that's what Yumi and Monster is essentially about: you're constantly experiencing grief and loss and how you're going to deal with that when that's going to be a part of your life forever.
Whether child or adult, we are all at some point faced with a massive challenge we were not expecting," Redlawsk's agent Ghahremani said. "Yumi and Monster's journey meets the reader where they are in life, inviting them into an adventure about confusion and, ultimately, empowerment that can be found within these life challenges...choosing to emphasize Yumi's perseverance and personal growth. "She goes through a series of emotions that we all go through: initial fear, anger, sadness... all of these can be walls and barriers that prevent us from seeing any other aspect of the situation, such as a disability," Redlawsk said.
Article on Publishers Weekly
A Blue Box Review: Tender, brave and full of magic, Yumi and Monster is a heartfelt modern fairy tale about facing life's changes with courage and hope. When a mysterious Monster appears and Yumi's body begins to weaken, she must go on a snowy journey to understand what's happening and to discover the strength that comes from acceptance and self-love. Beautifully illustrated and deeply moving, this story offers comfort and wonder to readers of all ages. - a blue box full of books IG
