Bookfoss

Even though Marka Míková would insist that the landscape of her books comes strictly from the Never-Never Land, she cannot deny Inspiration from the strange landscape of Iceland, devoid of trees and studded with geysers and hot water springs. In her rendition, the place becomes one where ancient stories blend with everyday life, a place where everything is possible, even traveling back in time, swallowing a fish, speaking to a puffin in a lighthouse, passing through a closed door, or playing in the ice with dwarfs.The book brims with narration, singing, arguments, running about, getting lost, flying, often quite spectacularly and even dramatically. Hredka, a seven year old girl, who has turned into a radish, travels unnoticed from place to place, from story to story, and peeking into children’s’ homes and witnessing little anecdotes and adventures, she lives her own story which meshes all of the others together. The book accompanied by Darja Čančíková's illustrations amounts to an absolutely unique achievement in contemporary children’s' literature.