Best illustrated books all over the world
I believe that the essence of a book illustrator’s profession lies in the ability to keenly perceive the unique character of a given text — its tempo and timbre. Books can be purely figurative, books of action, books of atmosphere, books that are novels of the soul — often in […]
These illustrations are among Kalinovsky’s most distinctive works. They earned him two major international awards — a silver medal at the Leipzig Book Fair and the Golden Apple at the 1977 Biennial of Illustration Bratislava. Kalinovsky approached the American folktales of Joel Chandler Harris not as light children’s stories but […]
Kalinovsky’s Master and Margarita feels like a visual echo of Bulgakov’s novel — complex, polyphonic, and impossible to pin down. He didn’t try to create one “key” for the whole book; instead, he approached each layer — Jerusalem, Moscow, the love story, the demonic carnival — as a world with […]
This edition of Gulliver’s Travels features illustrations by Gennady Kalinovsky, who brings Swift’s story to life with careful attention to both thought and feeling. The Lilliputians are small but full of character—each one active, clever, and distinct. Gulliver’s presence makes their tiny world feel both real and surprising. Kalinovsky didn’t […]
In 1968 the Soviet Union published Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Gennady V. Kalinovsky. His black-and-white drawings immediately stood out and later editions also included a selection of color plates. The book quickly became one of the most beloved editions of Travers’s classic in Russia. Kalinovsky’s […]
Original title: Пико — хрустальное горлышко Piko — The Crystal Throat by Nikolai Kosmin is a fairy tale about a small thrush named Piko, born in the kingdom of Vrunglupia — a land where lies, flattery, envy, and spite are part of daily life. Piko is different: he speaks the […]
Original title: Послушай-ка, слон One day, instead of taking the vitamins his mother so thoughtfully gave him, Pinya secretly feeds them to Dominic, a white porcelain elephant he found in the attic. After a while, Dominic suddenly discovers that his bookshelf has become a bit cramped. Thus, Pinya gains a […]
Original title: Приключения Алисы в Стране Чудес “Carroll’s book, in my opinion, is not a fairy tale. A fairy tale is devoid of paradox; it has a firm ethical foundation, and its plot is of the wandering kind. First, Alice is not a folk tale but rather a folkloric stylization. […]
