Three Tales and One More

A fairy tale is a fairy tale. In every fairy tale there must be kind fairies and evil sorcerers. They also appear in V. Kaverin’s fairy tales. And yet these are quite special tales, because their main characters—Tanya, Petya, Nastya, Mitya, and Masha—are ordinary Soviet children.

To do good and defeat evil, you often don’t even need to fight fairytale monsters. It’s enough to get rid of your own shortcomings. And the shortcomings of the heroes of V. Kaverin’s fairy tales are ordinary—like everyone else’s, as with all children. Petya is a bit cowardly and distracted, Mitya is boastful and not always polite, and the girl Tanya is talkative and too often stares into the mirror—rarely is there a girl who doesn’t have these flaws!

Whatever doesn’t happen in fairy tales! The little heroes have to experience many dangerous and amusing adventures. To save his sister, Mitya even goes to Koshchei’s brown country. But the main action of V. Kaverin’s fairy tales takes place in our own time— in our country, in Moscow or Leningrad.

Of course, children are helped by adults. The Doctor-Apothecary, the Scientist-Gardener, the Cheerful Chimney Sweep, the Master of Golden Hands, the Baker, Uncle Kostya—these are good Soviet people; otherwise they certainly wouldn’t worry so much that in spring Snegurochka must melt, and that Tanya Zabotskina won’t have her magic medicine in time for her seriously ill father.

«Three Fairy Tales and One More» by V. Kaverin — a kind, smart book… It will be read with a smile by both adults and children.