Two books by Udo Weigelt illustrated by Julia Gukova and translated by J. Alison James

I discovered the Russian illustrator Julia (Yulia) Gukova when I was exploring illustrators nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen award for 2022.  My friend has two books illustrated by Julia in her library both by Udo Weigelt and both published by the wonderful North South ad yes they are both wonderful stories. 

Talking about these two books I would like to comment on the brilliant translation by J. Alison James. I do not read German (the original language of these two books) but both contain rich texts which are sure to impress you.

Here are the German titles: Ich wars nicht! and Das sagenhafte Einhorn.

It Wasn't Me is a story about misplaced blame and overcoming prejudice. Ferret is collecting raspberries. He makes a pile and then moves off to collect more. When he returns the pile of delicious red fruit is missing. Up in the tree he spies Raven. Once, long ago, Raven did steal something - he will be forever tarnished by this previous crime but he is not guilty this time.  How can he convince his friends when all of the evidence seems to point to him. The animals gather for a meeting and it is decided they should look for clues. This book was published in 2001 and is long out of print so I am going to (spoiler alert) explain just who took the berries - it was the ants. Now the animals need to apologise to Raven, and work out a way to share the berries with the ants so everyone can be happy. You can see art from this book here. 

Here are a couple of text quotes:

"Mouse told the whole story. The animals were very indignant."

"Carefully they tiptoed after the berries, which were snaking around a little hill and then vanishing."

In The Legendary Unicorn we meet the same forest animals. Little Hedgehog sees a unicorn drinking at the stream. He rushes off to tell all of his friends but of course no one believes him after all unicorns are not real - surely? Their level of disbelief has consequences. When the forest animals gather as usual to share stories they discover they have forgotten every single one. The next day the forest itself feels dim and dull. They realise the problem is the unicorn. The only solution is to try to tell a new story - beginning with : Once upon a time there was a unicorn who loved stories very much. This book was first published in 2004 and so it is also out of print. 

Here are three text quotes which show the beauty of this translation:

"Every evening, the animals met in a clearing in the forest to tell stories - fairy tales, myths and legends- fantasies filled with magic and wonder."

"Now I, too believe that the unicorn was in or woods. Or something very like it. It's possible that our doubt has caused this environmental disturbance."

"The unicorn lifted its head in the moonlight. It looked calm and at peace, as if it felt at home. Hedgehog welled with happiness at the sight."

You can see the whole book here.