Казка про котика та півника

by Ivan Malkovych, Кость Лавро (Illustrator)

Одна з найдавніших і найулюбленіших українських народних казок. Свого часу права на цю книжку з блискучими, неперевершеними і по-справжньому українськими ілюстраціями Костя Лавра придбало одне з найлегендарніших видавництв світу «Альфред А. Кнопф» («Alfred A. Knopf») (США, 1995). Це була перша «абабагаламазька» книжка, яка здобулася на міжнародну популярність.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

26 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 1995

About the author

Ivan Malkovych is a Ukrainian poet and publisher.
Born May 10th, 1961 in Bereziv Nyzhniy in Ivano-Frankivsk region.
He graduated from the violin class of the Ivano-Frankivsk Music Academy and from the Faculty of Philology at the Taras Shevchenko State University of Kyiv. Ivan Malkovych has been the member of the Writer’s Union of Ukraine since 1986.
He is the author of seven poetry collections: “The White Stone” (1984), “The Key” (1988), “Poems” (1992), “With an Angel on My Shoulder” (1997), “Poems for Winter” (2006), “All is Near” (2010, 2011 – 2-nd complemented edition), “The Plantain” (2013).
Ivan Malkovych is the editor, compiler, author and a translator of dozens of books for children. “He is a man, maniacally devoted to the idea of “the Ukrainian book of especially good quality”. (The Book Review, №1, 2002).
Poems of Ivan Malkovych have been translated into English, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Bengali, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Georgian, Slovak, Slovenian languages.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the Ukrainian folktale Казка про котика та півника (The Cat and the Rooster), adapted by Ivan Malkovych, with accompanying artwork by Kost Lavro and translated into English by Motria Onyschuk, Malkovych's (and of course by extension Onychuk's) presented narrative features a totally anthropomorphic cast of characters, with a cat, a rooster (cohabitating friends) and a fox as the enemy (pretty traditional of course, since foxes are often shown as sly and deviously villainous in folklore). And yes, in The Cat and the Rooster, while the cat is out and about, the fox tricks the gullible and rather simpleton rooster (who had also been warned by the cat to watch out for the fox and her slyness), grabs him and ties the rooster up in her (that is the fox's) house, telling her children to let no one in (but just like the fox had hoodwinked the rooster in The Cat and the Rooster the cat then dupes the fox's children, rescues her rooster companion, stuffs the fox's children into a bag and with the liberated rooster then completely trashes and wreaks the fox's residence).

A nicely flowing (and therefore in my opinion also well translated) story is The Cat and the Rooster, like is common for traditional folktales pretty simple both contents and thematics wise and that no, the textual anthropomorphism of Ivan Malkovych's adaptation and of Motria Onychuk's translation for The Cat and the Rooster do not tend to bother me at all since animals acting and talking like humans are common in folk and fairy lore. However, although Kost Lavro's colourfully stylised accompanying illustrations for The Cat and the Rooster of oversized animals in traditional Ukrainian folk costumes are visually stunning and very decently reflect what is textually shown in The Cat and the Rooster as well as being nicely realistic regarding historical Ukrainian dress culture (with for example Lavro's cat looking like a Cossack and the rooster clad in a caftan, boots and spurs), sorry, but I just do not really enjoy illustrations of animals wearing human clothing and physically looking like humans. And with this definitely aesthetically annoying me regarding Kost Lavro's artwork, sorry, but while the talking and behaving like humans cat, rooster and foxes for The Cat and the Rooster do not textually frustrate me at all, my final rating for The Cat and the Rooster can and will only be three stars (but still recommended as a very nice and also very textually engaging piece of Ukrainian folktale) since both the animals wearing human clothing illustrations and the lack of an author's note do somewhat lower reading joy for me.

[Sandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this book brought mixed opinions from my daughter and I. I thought this was a cute little folktale. I don't know that there is any point to it other then listening to what you are told to do and doing it. The artwork in the book was fun....I really liked the illustrations.

My 5 year old did not feel the same about this book. When I gave her a group of books to pick from, this one came up last every time and when I asked her if she liked it she said not very much. Though she really doesn't seem to know why she doesn't care for it.

However, she also liked the pictures. I don't think it is the writer in this case, I think that the story just didn't appeal to her young mind. So maybe we will try it again when she is older.

[Rebekah Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the loyalty the two friends show to each other. While reading the book, I was not sure how the story was going to go. I liked that the story had a happy ending. The rooster learned his lesson to listen to his friend.

[Loanne Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retold by Maldovych, Ivan. The Cat and the Rooster: A Ukrainian Folktale (1993). Pictures by Kost’ Lavro. Good friends, Cat and Rooster, live together in a house. Whenever Cat goes out for the day, he would tell Rooster to stay indoors and not come out regardless of what happens outdoors. One day after Cat leaves, Rooster was tricked by the trickster, Fox, who planted some wheat to draw Rooster out of the house. Rooster did not follow Cat’s direction and stepped out of the house where he was caught by Fox. Cat heard Rooster’s call for help. The next day, Cat went to Fox’ house and tried to rescue Rooster. In the same manner that Rooster did not follow Cat’s directions to stay indoors, so did Fox’s three daughters and a son. All four of the Fox siblings were tricked by Cat to come outside of the house and got caught by Cat. The story ends in a happy ending for Rooster and Cat. They lived happily ever after.

Award winner Lavro illustrated this folktale with vibrant colors that introduce traditional Ukrainian clothing on the characters which will surely capture children’s attention. Illustrations are largely done full-sized images that depict the animal characters to be large-sized as the main focus of the story. The background settings are illustrated to be in the country/farm environment. The words are larger printed and readable that connect to the illustrations, while also engaging the reader with the rhyming words from the characters’ dialogue. Target audience: ages 5-7.

[Baycee Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Folktale, Ukraine, Cunning

Two friends a cat and a rooster have a crafty neighbor, a fox. Things go awry when the rooster does not listen to the cat and goes outside and gets taken by the fox. Will the cat and rooster be united? How will the cat overcome this obstacle?

This subgenre of folk literature can be classified as a fable. There are multiple choices of underlying messages in this story. What you do to others will in turn happen to you or listen to those in charge.

[Olya Lysenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Висока оцінка - красивому виданню, і це в 1993 році.

[Sabrina Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is Ukrainian folktale about a cat and his friends. I thought the story was a bit confusing but the illustrations were huge and lovely. I wouldn't read this book to young children because I don't think they would comprehend it.

[Sean Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really quite a fun book. Cat really looks out for rooster, knowing that he is vulnerable. I think that rooster didn't really understand why though, but he learnt the hard way and listened to cat after that.

[Lindsey Lubker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a folktale about a cat and a rooster. The cat and the rooster are best friends. The played and sang together and so much more.

[Alexander Aditya]

i want to read book

[Nadyaboo]

that's good