The Land of the Wise

A cheerful and engaging book by Alexey Kirnosov about adventures of kids in a fairyland. Murlundia is the Country of Sages, ruled by a funny and kind king, Mur the Seventeenth. In this country you can live freely and do whatever you want. Lida, Petya, and Misha get to Murlundia. And what comes of it—you’ll find out when you read the story.

For middle school age.

One morning I clipped Martyn to a leash and went to the stop for a countryside bus. Surprised, Martyn ran along, hopping at my left leg and twisting his neck to look into my eyes—he was trying to figure out what I had come up with new. Martyn didn’t understand anything until we got onto the bus. Then he realized we were going out of town and gratefully licked me on the cheek, then put his head on my elbow and fell asleep to shorten the waiting time.

We rode for about two and a half hours. I gradually forgot everything left in the city and dreamed of some quiet little place between the blue sea and a deep dark forest, where nothing—even a phone call—would disturb me.

Then I saw such a place: a forest, the sea, and a line of neat one-story houses. I woke Martyn up and we got out. The bus puffed out a blue cloud from the exhaust pipe and drove away. We headed toward the little houses. Martyn was introduced to the local four-legged residents, and I asked people we met about housing. They showed me the farthest little house. There, they said, lives a lonely old woman who would be happy to take in a visitor.