Yoon Suk-joong, a children's book writer and poet who told youngsters to dream big dreams and to listen to the voices of the smallest things, died of natural causes in a Seoul hospital Tuesday. He was 92.

Yoon made his literary debut at the age of 14 with "Spring," his first published song for children, and went on to produce thousands of poems and stories for children throughout his prolific life.

Hundreds of his stories were reincarnated as popular songs, including "Fly Away, Birds!", which is sung by elementary school students across the nation on May 5th, Children's Day.

The writer also initiated a literary organization, the Society of Sprouts, in 1956, which continues to hold writing competitions and publicizes new songs and stories.

Judges of the Inchon Prize, a prominent local literary award given to Yoon in 1992, said in a commentary that "When [Yoon] writes a story, he is down-to-earth and open-minded rather than moralistic and didactic... His feat is so remarkable that it is uncertain where children would have found nourishment for their hearts if he had not been around."