Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Let Me Be The First....


....to rave about this edition of Han's Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen!

The text is a delicious translation of Anderson's unabridged tale. The illustrations by Ukrainian artist Vladyslav Yerko are incredibly beautiful and detailed, fantastic and sensitive at once. They are full-page and double-page feasts for the eye and mind. I can't wait to see more of this artist's work!

(And kudos, props and kisses to my dear husband for discovering and bringing me this luscious loveliness on my sad and gloomy not-so-bad birthday.)

This limited edition book is put out by a publishing house I've never heard of ("A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha") and has a seal on it I've never seen before ("Anderson House Foundation Best Children's Book 2006").

So I did a little Googling. According to this article, I discovered that this foundation is headquartered in nearby Glen Ellyn, IL, of all places. Here's the scoop:

A new English edition of "The Snow Queen," gloriously illustrated by Ukrainian artist Vladyslav Yerko, is the first special project of the Anderson House Foundation....

The foundation scored a coup by enlisting Yerko as the illustrator of "The Snow Queen. He was named the best artist of 2002 by the Moscow Book Review, and "The Snow Queen" won the grand prize at the 2000 Ukrainian Book of the Year Awards.

A second book illustrated by Yerko, already has been published in Russian and is next in the foundation's plans.

"We will be bringing children's books (to America) every year - the best literature, the best illustrations," Glenn said, "and this is just the beginning.

"We have the rights to publish all the (works) of Ivan Malkovich, the best Ukrainian children's publishing house," she added, noting that Malkovich holds the exclusive rights to Ukrainian versions of the Harry Potter series, for which Yerko is doing the artwork.


So though I may be the first.... This probably won't be the last time you hear of Vladyslav Yerko!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Be-lated..and healthy Birthday! Hope your feet are feeling better. Oh..and I LOVE the picture of the Snow Queen - wow! Now that is a book I'll have to see if I can find. Thanks for sharing your birthday present with the rest of us! Now....put your feet up ( sorry, no pun intended) and enjoy your birthday week!

Hen Jen said...

that cover illustration is just beautiful! Thank you for sharing with us, and thank you for sharing some background information on the foundation and on the illustrator.

blessings,
Jenny in Ca
(homeiswhereyoustartfrom)

Anonymous said...

And here I thought this had something to do with Narnia!

Thanks for sharing, I'll have to watch out for it.

Carrie said...

(I followed your link through Semicolong.) This looks really intriguing. I, too, will keep an eye out for it!