Ukrainian / Ukraine
Farbovanyj lys
(The coloured fox)
Franko, Ivan
(Franko, Ivan)
(text)
Lavro, Kost‘
(illus.)
Kyïv: A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha, [2015]. – 21 p.
ISBN 978-617-585-079-4
Fox | Cunning | Betrayal | Accountability | Fable | Picture book
Reading age: 4+
White Ravens issue: 2017
“Farbovanyj lys” is one of the best-known fables of Ivan Franko (1856-1916), one of the most important poets of classic Ukrainian literature. For A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha Press, which only publishes a few elaborately produced titles every year, Kost‘ Lavro’s (b. 1961) quirky and edgy illustrations breathe new life into the tale. The devious fox Mykyta is cocky, clever, and boastful. He knows how to turn everything to his advantage, even when he has to hide himself in a vat of blue colour one day. He climbs out as an electrifying blue creature, claims to have been sent by Saint Nicholas and lets himself be waited on hand and foot. Of course, this doesn’t last for long, for the other animals soon discover the ploy. Lavro dresses his fox as a shifty crook in a bow tie and trench coat and comments on the story’s events with his jagged stroke in a marvellous and witty way.