An emotionally rich story of a contemporary ten-year-old girl: about adventure, a conscious bond with nature and a family affected by illness.

Children’s and Young Adult

Mojenka is a ten-year-old schoolgirl and single child, growing up near Prague. Above all she loves nature – not just the garden and forest surrounding the home where she lives with her parents – but she also has a fondness for exotic humpback whales and dolphins. Her love for animals was instilled in her by her mother, a naturalist who lectures at university, and who taught Mojenka from a young age to recognize and protect nature, and to be courageous and self-sufficient too. Mojenka makes good use of all of these characteristics when one autumn day her mother has to go for an operation and since then has been fighting cancer. The poet and writer Olga Stehlíková looks at this sensitive topic with incredible empathy – thanks to the character of the father there is still some humour and the girl’s knowledge is used for gentle, illustrated explanations (the mother’s illness is compared to galls on the leaves of trees). The narrative switches between a description of the moments shared with her mother and Mojenka’s adventurous trips to the forest, the breeding kennels and school. With their breadth of motifs, Andrea Tachezy’s fragile, dreamlike illustrations highlight the turbulent world of an adolescent girl.

Age 11+