This past spring, Rebekah and I watched the Korean drama "It's OK to Not be OK," which is about a children's author with antisocial personality disorder, a young man dealing with past trauma who also works as a certified nurse assistant at a psychiatric hospital while caring for his older adult brother, who has autism.
The brother with autism is fascinated with dinosaurs and is very attached to his little stegosaurus Dooly. His brother, the CNA, also made "Mang Tae" for him, a little doll that chases away nightmares (the brother with autism has nightmares about butterflies).
The children's author also writes dark fairy tales, which are actual books in the series that are read onscreen. I LOVED these stories! They are dark, yes, but filled with simple, unexpected, and (sometimes) heartbreaking wisdom.
And now I own them, as well as my own Dooly and my own Mang Tae, thanks to Rebekah's generosity, although, as you will see, I think Mang Tae would GIVE nightmares rather than chase them away.
With each book and item I linked to a YouTube video in English, so you can see the context and "read" the books, too.
The books are written in Korean. So I can't read them without the videos.
First, here is Dooly.
And Dooly again.
And here is clip that shows how important Dooly was to the man with autism - and how the people around him misunderstood that interest.
And this is Mang Tae and a clip right here.
Now for the books.
Here is the autism's brother's sketchbook that shows his how he wants to make his brother's camping dream come true.
And one of his butterfly drawings as he tries to overcome his fear with the help of the doctor who runs the psychiatric hospital.
And now for the dark fairytale books.
The first is The Happy (or Cheerful) Dog. You can read the story with this clip.
Next is "Finding the Real Face." You can read the story with this clip. Start at the 1:50 mark (or not).
Here is The Boy Who Fed on Nightmares. You can read the story with this clip.
