Children’s and Young Adult

Marka Míková’s works for children and young people often reach beyond the Bohemian basin – characters of her fantastic proses inhabit the distant Iceland (Kniha-foss /Book-Foss/, 2007) or travel all the away across the pond (Mrakodrapy /Skyscrapers/, 2012). And yet the story of the eight-year-old Matylda, growing up with her film-director father, takes place against the backdrop of a single apartment building. When the girl goes shopping, she discovers mysterious cracks in the walls, which turn into a gateway to a fantastic world, in which she encounters, among other, her neighbour’s lost ferret featured on the book’s cover. In this unreality, Matylda lives out her adult destiny, bringing to life some painfully suppressed desires. This initiation story successfully blends everyday reality with dreamy visions that accompany us in both our conscious and subconscious minds. Tereza Ščerbová’s drawings – in a surprising blue-orange tone – underline the book’s overall beauty and strengthen the hope of the readers, who are slowly coming of age, that it is good to believe in a better, full and bright life.