The book cover I designed for an illustrators' contest organized by the publishing house Albus Corvus.
This book is about unique moments of happiness from childhood.
Asya spends the summer in the village at her aunt's house in Kazakhstan: an all-knowing grandmother, troublesome sisters, a quarrelsome turkey, bike races—basically, typical holidays. But Asya has her secret: treasures that no one knows about and that Asya hides in the garden.
The book is intended for middle and high-school-age readers.
There's one extract from the book that I find deeply touching. It's the description of Asya's treasures: a wooden imp the size of a pinky, a red shaggy scrunchie, a blackened ring with a fake diamond, a calendar featuring a beauty, and a round card with a cat's face on one side and Japanese characters on the other.
In adults' eyes, these items are probably unnecessary and ridiculous, but for a child, they are full of magic and secrets.
I wanted to recreate this childish joy of having some secret treasures that belong to you alone, and no one in the whole world knows about them, which makes them even more valuable.
