The Fly Tsokotukha and Other Fairy Tales

Korney Chukovsky is a serious literary scholar and an eminent translator—he wrote wonderful verse fairy tales for children. His heroes are people, animals, and even things that fearlessly fight, joyfully dance, escape captivity, and rush headlong to adventures, battles, and feats—beloved by more than one generation of young readers.

“Children aged from two to five— the happiest tribe of all that live on earth,” Chukovsky wrote. “A writer for small children must be happy—happy as those for whom he creates. Sometimes I felt myself as one of those happy people when, as it happened, I wrote verse fairy tales for children.”

The secret of Chukovsky’s amazing fairy tales is that he could feel like a child, return for a time to the carefree sunny kingdom of children, and become filled with an astonishing sense of childish joy and zest for life.