“Would you like a story about a princess, Karina?”
“Maybe one of those stories about a princess and monsters, Baba.”
The story Babushka tells to her granddaughter is ‘about memories and families’. It begins with a lovely cottage in the Ukraine where lives a little girl ‘poor of money but rich of soul.’ But all too soon the Monsters come. And everything changes forever.
What will happen to our princess and all the other children in this frightening world? After sad events, the little girl finds a matryoshka doll, and inside the doll a message of hope. Will the children be able to escape to safety? Listen closely, as Babushka unfolds her story.
Mawson’s Guardian says: This story is set during ‘The Holodomor’ in the Ukraine in the 1930s. I had no idea about the Holodomor. Here I am learning about it from a kids book. And it’s well worthwhile for grownups to read it too.
Who are the monsters: In the time of the dictator Josef Stalin, Soviet soldiers in 1932 stripped the Ukraine of so much grain that millions died of famine. They transported thousands of people to Siberia. It is a hard story of awful history, here shown in a deftly written children’s picture book.
With this story of drama and hope, Carola Schmidt has, I think, created a wonderful little book that confronts a hard part of history that will intrigue grownups as well as children.
About the Author: Carola Schmidt, the author of the Babushka Tales series, is a Pediatric Oncology Pharmacist. She has written scientific books on paediatric oncology and also, for children and their families, Chubby’s Tale . Mawson and friends proudly read and reviewed Chubby’s brave story here. You can find Chubby on Facebook.
Carola’s Amazon Author Page is here where you can find these books and her other titles listed.
Where to find Tell Me A Story Babushka: Amazon, and Book Authority.
You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In . “Reading this book is like receiving a great big hug of reassurance and a huge hot chocolate with fluffy marshmallows.” Review by Lady Bracknell
Mawson Bear 