Czech / Czech Republic
Omrzlina
(Frostbite)
Čupová, Kateřina
(text)
Čupová, Zuzana
(illus.)
Brno: Host, 2024. – 49 p.
ISBN 978-80-275-2218-7
Imagination | Cold | Climate change | Gnome
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2025
A family’s youngest child, Míša, narrates this first-person travelogue from her own childlike perspective. While highly imaginative and inventive, perhaps not every detail should be taken at face value. Nonetheless their strange and icy summer adventure is quite extraordinary. After a swim in the lake, everyone, and especially Míša’s older brother, is freezing cold. Then Míša discovers the ice goblin Omrzlina in their freezer. Like many goblins, Omrzlina has left her icy homeland as the frost disappears. The sisters Kateřina and Zuzana Čupová have created an engaging story in which more and more magical moments unfold in an initially realistic plot. And they tell these stories in a delightfully fresh manner: short sections of text blend naturally with wordless sequences of images in pastel matte tones. »Omrzlina« is a fast-paced, fantastical children’s story that can also be read as an allegory about climate change. [KW]