The Polar Bear Day: Meet the Illustrator
by Floris Books • 26 February 2026 • Children's Books, Picture Books • 0 Comments
Our Art and Production Director met illustrator Park Jihee on the very beach that is the inspiration for the end of The Polar Bear Day. This striking, wordless picture book with characterful illustrations painted directly onto old cardboard boxes, turns everyday rubbish into something beautiful.
Park Jihee’s unique artwork captivates readers while also conveying a gentle message about the importance of caring for our endangered environment.
Knock knock! A young boy opens his door to find a surprising visitor: a playful polar bear!
Leah chats to creator Park Jihee about her journey to becoming an illustrator and the inspiration behind the story.
Can you tell us a bit about how you became an illustrator?
After graduating, I’ve been consistently working and participating in exhibitions. In 2024 I submitted my work to the picture book contest held by the Korea Picture Book Publishers’ Association in Korea. I was selected, and it led to the publication of my book. It has long been my dream to create picture books that can tell stories through illustrations alone, without the need for grand explanations.
I was born and raised in Busan, South Korea, where I studied Western painting and graduated from an art university. Later, I completed my master’s degree in fine arts in Granada, Spain.
How did you create the artwork for The Polar Bear Day?
Everything in The Polar Bear Day — from the cover and endpapers to every page inside — was hand-drawn on discarded cardboard. I began to wonder if I could better convey my message not only through the subject or theme, but also through the materials, media, and techniques I used.
By choosing to recycle and reuse, I wanted to take a small yet meaningful step toward environmental responsibility through my work.
The illustrations were created using colored pencils, watercolor, acrylic paint, ink, and collage elements (such as newspaper and magazine clippings about environmental issues) on cardboard.
What inspired you to create this story?
This story actually began more than ten years ago, during a children’s illustration class I took while studying in Granada, Spain. As with most of my work, I sought inspiration from daily life. Though I had started to grow familiar with my surroundings in Spain, there were still things that kept catching my eye—moments that made me stop in my tracks. I began to wonder if it was because I was still a foreigner, seeing things from a different perspective. That led me to ask: what if I told stories of daily life through the eyes of an outsider?
What message do you want your story to tell young readers?
What if something you always thought was a distant issue suddenly happened right in front of you?
Rather than offering a clear or definite answer to environmental issues, I hoped to show how we live our everyday lives—and invite the reader to reflect on how they, too, are living theirs.
As I expressed toward the end of the book, I wanted to say that whether you’re a person or a polar bear, you’re not alone. In this world where we live separately but together. I wanted to encourage each of us to do what we can, wherever we are. I believe that if we pay just a little more attention, our everyday actions—often done without much thought—can begin to shift. And when those small changes accumulate, we might find we’re capable of more than we imagined.
To bring everyday environmental issues into focus, I introduced an unexpected visitor—the polar bear, a now-iconic symbol of endangered species and climate change.
About the creative
Park Jihee is an emerging illustrator from Busan, South Korea. She studied painting in Busan and fine arts in Granada, Spain. Jihee is passionate about creating picture books that tell stories through illustrations alone. She lives in Busan, where she spends most of her time working in her studio by the sea. The Polar Bear Day is Jihee’s first picture book.
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