Viktor Chizhikov: Petya and Potap. Printed book.

The book includes three fairy tales.
The first is the well-known Russian folk tale "The Peasant and the Bear" as retold by A.N. Tolstoy. The peasant was hardworking, sowing either turnips or rye, while the bear was idle, yet he hoped to grab a share of the harvest grown by the peasant every time. The bear is strong but foolish. The peasant is weaker but smart. In this tale, intelligence triumphs over strength. That is how it happens in life, too.
The peasant and the bear were always quarreling, and so artist Viktor Chizhikov came up with a continuation featuring new characters – two fairy tales titled "Petya and Potap" and "Petya Saves Potap".
In these stories, a boy named Petya and a bear cub named Potap become friends and help each other in everything. They gather raspberries together, enjoy eating them, and even chop down a dead tree for firewood. And when an Evil Hunter appears, wanting to kill the old bear and the cub to sell their hides, the quick-witted Petya figures out how to get rid of him. With the help of his friend Potap and the bear-grandfather, he sends the Evil Hunter—nothing less—into space, where he still floats in zero gravity today, being fed by cosmonauts. Although he is evil, he is still a human.
The history of how this book was created is interesting in itself. Viktor Chizhikov illustrated "The Peasant and the Bear" on commission for the Japanese publisher Gakken. In 1983, the book was published in Japanese, and the following year, the artist received a proposal from the publisher to write and illustrate a sequel.
Viktor Chizhikov did things differently. He came up with new characters: a boy named Petya, the grandson of the peasant from the first tale, and a bear cub named Potap, the grandson of the very same bear. Petya and Potap became friends, and a completely different story emerged.
The Japanese published "Petya and Potap" in 1986 and promptly wrote that they were waiting for a sequel. But the artist was distracted by other work, and the sequel "Petya Saves Potap" appeared much later, in 1993. As it happened, Japanese children read these stories before Russian children.
A little later, the artist collected all three tales under one cover. The illustrations are presented in large scale. Their main virtue is especially valuable in our time: they are not frightening, even when the bear is angry or the Evil Hunter shares his bloodthirsty intentions. In the fairy-tale world created by Viktor Chizhikov, kindness and harmony prevail, and one can live in it without looking back or feeling fear.

Author: Viktor Chizhikov

Pages: 88 (offset). Hardcover

Dimensions: 260×198×15 mm