Czech / Czech Republic
O čem sní
(What they dream of)
Borkovec, Petr
(text)
Tachezy, Andrea
(illus.)
Praha: František Havlůj – Běžíliška, 2016. – [23] p.
ISBN 978-80-906112-8-3
Dream | Imagination | Poetry | Leporello | Picture book
Reading age: 7+
White Ravens issue: 2017
Petr Borkovec (b.1970) is among the most important contemporary poets of the Czech Republic. He has received many awards, and his poems have been translated into several languages. It’s a stroke of luck that he collaborates with illustrator Andrea Tachezy (b. 1966) to make this fanfold book for children. Together they explore what all manner of beings, both living and inanimate, dream of. In the process, a gardener and a sailor, a bear and an elephant, and even a pencil and a crescent-shaped pastry appear in a wonderfully absurd way: the sailor dreams of cleaning up the sea and stacking all the crabs; the pastry dreams of how it is eaten; and the lethargic bear dreams of sleeping. Light and free, Borkovec employs different lyrical forms, from end rhyme and internal rhyme to free verse, while Tachezy constructs off-beat pictures out of collage, water colour and drawing. “O čem sní” is perhaps the best example of the unusual profile of young publishing house Běžíliška, which specializes in elaborate picture books and especially fanfolds.