Click on the image above to sample a page from the book!
This is a picture book edition of "Thumbelina", one of the most lovely tales written by Hans Christian Andersen. Its Russian title is "Dyuimovochka".
The book is beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, a remarkable Russian-born and educated illustrator who now lives and works in the USA.
... A woman is longing for a child and receives a magic barley seed from a witch. Once she plants it, a tiny girl emerges from its flower and is named Thumbelina.
One night, Thumbelina is asleep in her walnut-shell cradle and is carried off by a toad who wants the miniature maiden as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until captured by a beetle. The insect discards her when his friends reject her company.
Thumbelina tries to protect herself, but when winter comes, she is in desperate straits. She is finally given shelter by an old field mouse and tends the mouse's dwelling in gratitude. The mouse suggests Thumbelina marry their neighbor, a mole, but Thumbelina finds the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive.
She escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with a swallow she nursed back to health during the winter. In a sunny field of flowers, she meets a tiny flower-fairy prince just her size and to her liking, and they wed. She receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower...
In Russian language. Translated by Anna Ganzen.
Publisher: Machaon (Russia). Extra-large format. Hardcover. 32 pages.
