One of the most ambitious Czech comics ever written, Oskar Ed fuses a poignant family drama with fantastical scenes playing out in the mind of its young protagonist.

Bored during a car journey with his dysfunctional parents, Oskar escapes into surreal dreams and fantasies reminiscent of the films of Lynch and Cronenberg. This imaginary universe created by Oskar parallels, warps and transforms the real world, unveiling the strained relationship with his parents and forgotten family secrets. Although it is built on the framework of a small, intimate story, this comics presents a monumental narrative played out on several time levels and in several spiritual worlds culminating in a devastating finale. Branko Jelinek’s art style, incorporating fine lines and elaborate backgrounds on both multi-panel pages and disturbing full-page visions, complement his multifaceted story. Hailed by critics as one of the most important Czechoslovak comics of the past decade, Oskar Ed: My Greatest Dream vividly illustrates the manner in which a child perceives and processes family disagreements, and demonstrates how trauma and dreams may have a great deal in common.

A slender book with two beginnings, offering a dual variation of the same story, which refers to the cycle of life. The dominant illustrations and restrained use of text convey a message for readers of any age.

This charming little book is full of surprises: it has the unusually small format of a pocket diary, and the reader soon finds that it is a double book: the story can be read from both ends, which meet in the middle on a folded, double-sided page with a panoramic illustration. One part of the story tells the tale of an elderberry seed that dropped from the beak of a white fledgling bird, while the other part depicts the adventures of the bird itself. The narrative gently portrays the passage of time and the cycle of life, encourages readers to be observant, and highlights the role of random chance in our world. The text is brief: no more than four lines of simple sentences in capital letters are concentrated on the lower half of the page. The book is characterised by a stylistic purity, which is emphasised by the composition, colour and technique of Klára Zahrádková’s illustrations. The images cleverly underpin the story’s details; readers big and small will love coming back to this book again and again.

Age: 7+

An award-winning adventure story for clever children which plumbs the depths in a pocket submarine.

This children’s story from the workshop of Petr Stančík, who has also been awarded prizes for his novels for adults, focuses on life-giving water. The adventure for clever children was illustrated by the popular Galina Miklínová, known for her famous Lichožrouti (Oddsockeaters). Readers can depend on the author’s acumen to bring a light touch to all of his lessons – this book has an educational subtext – which will also be appreciated by parents who have forgotten a thing or two. The educational framework of the book is subtle and is nicely undermined by the illustrations. Water has the formula H2O, which is also the initials of the main characters – Hugo, Hubert and Ophelia, who thanks to their miniaturisation go on various expeditions headed by the mad professor Hermengild Vulpes. The story contains lessons and explanations about water on the margins of the pages, together with explanatory illustrations. Among them, however, children can also find recipes for the characters’ favourite dishes!

The story of plum stones, filled with twists and turns, escapades, absurd humour and wonderful linocuts.

The full-page colour linocuts and cartoon input by Chrudoš Valoušek landed this large-scale project a Golden Ribbon Award for artistic achievement of the year as well as victory in the 2018 competition for the Most Beautiful Czech Book for children and young adults, followed shortly afterwards by publication in the Netherlands.

However, we should not overlook the gleeful contribution of Vojtěch Mašek’s fairy-tale text: a boy called Peter converses with a talking log, which reveals its story to him, beginning with its origins as a plum fruit. Its stone turns into another fruit tree. In one episode a professor takes this for an exotic tree and is so disappointed to realize his mistake that he angrily heads off to Australia; a Spanish family move into his house and have the plum tree cut down, so the puppet ends up travelling across the world as a log. The hero’s journey as recounted to his friend constantly abounds with new ideas, developing the tradition of the tomfoolery of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio through distinctive absurd humour.

An imaginative variation on the increasingly popular isekai genre, where two worlds collide – the real and the virtual – in a pleasing combination of prose and comics.

The main character Tomáš is obsessed with a computer game called The Alliance of the Valiant. Life in the virtual world, filled with monsters to be vanquished, treasure to be discovered, and secrets to be revealed, is so much easier than life in our world, where he has to go to school and face annoying schoolmates who bully him. At one particularly difficult point, the virtual and real worlds unexpectedly connect and suddenly everything is different – Tomáš will face daunting challenges that will reveal what is truly important, what you have to fight for, and how you should behave responsibly towards others. Ester Stará’s exciting story avoids moralizing and has a fresh, contemporary feeling in its style, which is helped by the dynamic, videogame-comics visuals by Jiří Franta, spread out over multi-panel page-sized compositions.

Age: 10+

An animal fairy tale or forest fantasy? The mysteriously named Žako and Stopotvorná borrows essential ingredients from both these genres.

The vixen Stopotvorná leaves behind russet tracks, but which she expertly brushes away with her bushy tail, while the parrot Žako is eventually able to speak on behalf of all the human and animal characters in this thrilling tale. The chance encounter of a vixen and a parrot occurs in the home of the vet who rescued them – and who is rewarded with a new friendship with a kind waitress. Without giving away all the details of their adventures, we can disclose that they travel on a water lily to a place teeming with rich flora and fauna, where the Mighty Tree grows, whose seeds accentuate certain characteristics for better or for worse. The other animal protagonists include a pack of wolves, a capybara, and a prairie dog. One of the main roles, though, is played by the vixen’s lost sister, Matylda, who Stopotvorná has a competition with to see who has the better sense of smell. There are full-page illustrations, surprisingly drawn in brightly coloured markers with details in brilliant orange, which also appear in the distinctive front cover.

Age: 6+

]]> https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/zako-a-stopotvorna-en/feed/ 0 https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/hravouka-en/ https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/hravouka-en/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:27:56 +0000 CzechLit http://www.czechlit.cz/book/ When it comes to teaching primary school children about the world around them, why present them with a series of dull, unconnected... ]]>

When it comes to teaching primary school children about the world around them, why present them with a series of dull, unconnected facts when you can link it all together in an appealing way through an entertaining story and even let the children try things out for themselves.

A young graduate of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Tereza Vostradovská, is behind the text and illustrations for this inventive book, which presents information about nature in a gentle and interactive form. In its underground burrow, an inquisitive big-eared mouse is putting together its own nature encyclopaedia. For this purpose, it sets out to investigate both under the ground and above it, through the woods and orchard and around the fish pond, encountering worms and larva, tracing the outlines of stones from fruit, listening to birdsong, thinking about how to tell the age of a tree or how to decide what is a fruit and what is a vegetable. It also sets tasks for its readers, teaching them how to catch beetles, grow plants or make a garden pond. In addition, the book is linked to new media and comes with an app and a website, which are also in English. Although the book is primarily intended for younger schoolchildren, the playful and yet clear (often full-page) illustrations make it comprehensible and attractive for pre-schoolers too.

Have you ever held a postcard you longed to step into? Thanks to the love of her granddaughter, the ageing protagonist is able to do just that.

A slightly nostalgic fondness for sending postcards from summer holidays lies at the heart of this charming intergenerational story about the power of family, love and the imagination. The enticing landscape postcards from places visited by the eponymous G. (the granddaughter) during her holiday travels become, for her ageing grandmother, a gateway to adventurous journeys. One of them experiences them first-hand, the other from the apparent calm of a living-room armchair. Together they gradually find themselves on sheep-filled pastures, in dark forests perfect for mushroom foraging, on icy mountain peaks, and by sulphurous springs. One of the great hopes of the young Czech comics scene, Kateřina Illnerová received the Muriel Award in 2024 for Best Student Comics for this work which was originally her graduation project. The poetic narrative, drifting along in drowsy summer enchantment, is perfectly matched by a playful stylization, rich yet subdued colours, and an inventive, loose approach to panel grids and page composition.

An artist on his dream journey through America.

Jindřich Janíček’s travelogue West by Northwest recounts and reconstructs his experiences from one big journey to Washington, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and back to Washington again. More than three hundred pages long and full of illustrations, the book captures the small everyday experiences of an artist fascinated and obsessed with the United States (and its specific culture, Americana). The mix of richly illustrated text, detailed maps and comics passages make it an atmospheric and engaging account of what America personifies for Jindřich Janíček and of what this gifted artist and storyteller has always found appealing and terrifying about it. West by Northwest is part travel diary, part personal confession and part political commentary.

Weather experts Dagmar Honsová and Martina Součková have produced a book which fills the gap in the market for high-quality illustrated meteorology reference books for children.

Everyone understands the weather. If the forecast on television is not enough for us, we can check the internet or look out the window. We change our clothes and plans for our trips according to the weather forecast. Is weather really a science at all? Of course it is, and it’s fun! Did you know, for example, that there is a grain of sand in every drop of rain? Why did weather sayings come into being and how did they help our ancestors? This richly illustrated handbook will reveal how the weather was predicted in the past, help uncover quite a few meteorological mysteries and teach the reader how to make their own storm in a glass of water. In this stylishly illustrated book, children will learn a lot of interesting facts about natural processes and gain an understanding of the climate crisis debate.

Age: 10+

About the authors:

Dagmar Honsová (1980) graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Czech University of Life Sciences. She has been forecasting the weather for almost fifteen years for the company Meteopress and she works with various news outlets. She is working on an educational programme on meteorology for schools.

Martina Součková (1982) graduated in physical culture from Palacký University in Olomouc. She works at the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and also trains young people in rowing.

Marie Štumpfová (1984) graduated from the studio of illustration and graphics at Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design and completed an internship at Vladimír Kokolia’s studio at the Academy of Fine Arts. She also works in graphic design and created the graphics for the magazine PAGE. She illustrated Jiří Dvořák’s book Jak zvířata spí (How Animals Sleep, 2014), which has been translated into several languages accompanied by her illustrations and was awarded a Golden Ribbon Award.

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