If one day, the grains of rice that you frequently put in your mouth suddenly start to move, talk, and give you a rundown on how they were created on the field, would you believe it? This seemingly absurd scenario is exactly what happened to Minh, a little boy who's the main character of Con ăn hết rồi!, a children's book by author Đỗ Nguyệt Hà and illustrator Lê Phương Quỳnh, also known as Buffy.
The book, released both in Vietnamese as Con ăn hết rồi! (I've finished my food!) and in English as Minh and the Magic Grains of Rice, discusses a topic that stays close to Hà's heart. She was born and raised in Thái Bình, a province in northern Vietnam, and has always wanted to write a story based on her background and interests in rural Vietnam and the environment. A workshop supported by Room to Read, a non-profit organization that distributes children’s storybooks in Hồ Chí Minh City, allowed her and Buffy to do realize that dream. The result was Magic Grains, a charming children's storybook using inspirations from Vietnamese folklore to deliver a meaningful story and educate kids on the issues surrounding food waste.
In the story, Minh, the protagonist, refuses to finish his rice bowl and thus deeply offends the magic rice grains, prompting them to take him on an adventure to learn about how rice is made and how it should be appreciated. Some details in the book are connected to Vietnam's folk belief that rice was given to humans by the gods in heaven. In addition, this book makes an effort to maintain cultural authenticity by including many Vietnamese elements, such as proverbs that play a crucial role in detailing the process of making rice. According to Quỳnh, the creators fought to keep them in the book’s English edition: “Readers from American culture don’t know and understand much about Vietnamese proverbs. It took us a whole year to convince the publishing house to keep them, because they are the core of our story.”
The magical grains of rice lead Minh on a journey to discover the values of rice. Image via Chronicle Books.
During the process of creating Con ăn hết rồi!, Buffy worked side-by-side with Hà to develop the storyline as well as its illustrations. Receiving support and feedback from other artists in the workshop, they went through rounds of adjustments to fine-tune the character designs. For example, the concept behind the “Ông Trời” (King of Heaven) character went from human-like to being portrayed through natural elements like trees and clouds.
Still, Buffy's creative journey with this book wasn’t one without struggles. Minh’s transformation scene from his world to the magic rice grains’ dream world was one of the most challenging to draw: “Unlike in movies, where the transition between worlds can be easily portrayed through character movements, only a few frames in the book can be used to illustrate it.” It took her several attempts to finalize this scene because she needed to make the transition as straightforward as possible, while still fully depicting the main character's journey to the dream world and back to the main world. Fortunately, it all paid off in the end, as many drawings in the book turned out beautiful, conveying the exact message Buffy wanted to tell: positivity and happiness for the audience through her fun, whimsical, and colorful art style.
Con ăn hết rồi! was Buffy’s first book illustration project, and to her, it was vastly different from drawing one or two standalone pictures, which involves drawing whatever she has in mind without having to create a first sketch. Producing an entire illustrated book, however, required her to go through various steps, such as creating first sketches, designing characters, visualizing the world and the background, identifying how a certain amount of content in the book can be illustrated, creating a storyboard for the books’ illustrations, and so on.
Buffy shared that this book helped her learn a great deal about the creation of picture storybooks and their diversity in terms of themes, approaches, and content across different nations, in addition to enabling her to publish her own book. The process also strengthened her love for making picture books. Many scenes in Con ăn hết rồi! hold special meanings for her as well. One of which is the scenes where the rice field transforms through different season: “I love depicting something through various perspectives, different times like that. I think it was an enjoyable experience.”
Lucky envelops by Buffy.
As the book materialized, so did Buffy’s realization that illustration could be more than just a profession — it's the thread that has interwoven with her life since childhood. Growing up, she found making friends difficult, so drawing became her way of entertaining herself when the world felt too distant, and this hobby later grew into a burning passion. “I felt like I had a certain sense of peace whenever I drew,” she recalls. “So I thought ‘oh, maybe I should pursue this career path.’” Through many ups and downs, she realized that talent alone wouldn't be enough to succeed in this industry; persistence and hard work are crucial, as one cannot expect to produce beautiful artworks on the first try. It takes many attempts and much effort to achieve it. Her true joy, however, lies in the process of creation itself. “It was that journey of creating, that emotion when you get to make something with your hands by yourself…I feel like those are the happiness of making art.”
Everything Buffy learned throughout her journey with art was distilled into Con ăn hết rồi!. It's a story about appreciating small things in life, which perfectly reflects the way Buffy sees drawing and creativity. For her, they have always been both a refuge and a revelation, flourishing quietly and consistently with passion, patience, and care. “It’s like the universe saying that I can only do this, I can only draw for the rest of my life,” she said. Perhaps that, too, is its own kind of magic: the joy of creating, line by line, grain by grain.
Illustrations courtesy of Buffy. To see more of her works, visit her Instagram account @f.buffy.
