MELIK-PASHAEV is an independent children’s books publishing house established in 2008. We produce high-quality picture books and illustrated fiction for children between the ages of 1-10 years offering a perfect combination of fascinating stories and spectacular artwork. We specialize in reprint editions of vintage books first published in the 1930s-1970s and contemporary titles from award- winning Russian and foreign children’s authors and illustrators.
Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrator: Boris Diodorov
Size: 215 х 280 mm
32 pages
Paperback
Age: 3+
Picture Book
One of the world’s most famous fairy tales. A lonely woman dreams of having a child and turns to a witch for help. The witch gives her a barley seed from which grows a flower with a tiny girl inside - Thumbelina. But Thumbelina is not destined to live a carefree life in her mother's house. First she is kidnapped by a toad, then she is captured by a cockchafer and finally becomes the bride of a rich mole. Fortunately, the girl is saved by a swallow, which the good-hearted Thumbelina herself once saved from death. The ending of the fairy tale is logical: Thumbelina will be rewarded for her meekness and generosity. She will find her happiness in a beautiful garden and marry an equally diminutive and beautiful elf king.
Author: Tatyana Gorodentseva
Size: 167 х 240 mm
112 pages
Hardcover
Age: 5+
Fiction
One day at breakfast, Pavlik announced to his parents: “You know, dad and mom, I’m no longer a boy. I'm a bird!" The parents, of course, were surprised, but they didn’t show it. Dad helped Pavlik build a house on an apple tree, and the boy moved there to live as if in a nest. Soon Pavlik met a bird family that lived in a nearby tree. And it turned out that their chick decided that he was not a chick at all, but a human boy! A heartwarming timeless story full of adventures.
Author: Piotr Bagin
Size: 240 х 320 mm
48 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Awards:
1. National Award Obraz knigi 2015
2. National Award Book of the Year 2015
Rights sold: China, South Korea
A perfect guide to exploring the tempered zone forest and its inhabitants. Twelve colorful double pages featuring the animal life in the forest month by month through the seasons are accompanied by smart comments full of intriguing facts. The month-by-month double pages are followed by generously illustrated reference material easy to perceive for children as young as four.
Author: Piotr Bagin
Size: 240 х 320 mm
56 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Rights sold: China
The forests are inhabited by amazing creatures – wild animals and birds. Even if we can’t see them we can spot their traces: footprints, scratchers, bitten brunches, all kind of nests, burrows, litter. This book will teach kids and their parents how to read those traces: how to tell a wolf from a dog, a lynx from a wolverine, how to identify birds by their nests and hollows. Also the young readers will learn a lot about the wild animals’ appearance, temper, eating habits and life cycle.
Author: Nikolai Vatagin
Size: 240 х 320 mm
36 pages
Hardcover
Age: 3+
Awards: National Award Obraz knigi 2014
Rights sold: China
A picture encyclopedia of water transports and vessels for children 3+. It shows everything that sails on water: from canoe and surf boards to giant icebreakers and cruise liners. It shows everything that sails under water: from bathyscaphes to submarines. It shows everything that flies over water: from firefighter seaplanes to vertical takeoff planes. It has double pages explaining how harbor and shipbuilding yard work. It has a profile cross-section of a modern ship. It introduces all those involved in navigation: sailors, engineers, divers, oceanologists etc.
MY FIRST BOOK OF CARS
Author: Nikolai Vatagin
Size: 215 х 215 mm
36 pages
Hardcover
Age: 2+
A very first book of vehicles. Cars in the street are boasting: “I’m the best one“, the passenger car says. “Because I’m so common and popular“. “No, I’m the best”, the racing car says. “Because I’m the fastest”. “I can stop any fast car for exceeding speed”, the police car boasts. “So, I’m the most important”. “I’m never stopped by the police”, the ambulance car says. “All vehicle give me way, so I’m the best”. The discussion goes on involving a tow truck, a timber truck, a fire truck, a motorbike, a bus, an off-road car etc. So, which car is the best? “I know which car is the best of all”, a little boy says in the end. “That’s my favorite toy car!”
AMAZING DINOSAURS
Autors: Viktoria Zatolokina, Maria Melik-Pashaeva, Tatiana Rudenko
Illustrators: Philipp Yarin, Alexander Sichkar
Size: 210 х 275 mm
64 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Rights sold: China
The first book of dinosaurs for children from 4 to 8 years old. Comics, facts and quiz part. The first part of the book is performed in comic style. Each double page shows an episode from the dinosaurs’ busy everyday life animated by speech bubbles. Catchy short dialogues reveal in playful form the dinosaurs’s eating habits, behavioral and anatomical features. The second part is designed like a reference guide to the comic episodes: each double page is portraying one species: Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, Ankylosaurus, Deinonychus etc. The book is complemented by a quiz, which helps children to memorize the multiple facts.
SPRING. THE BIG AND THE SMALL (BOOK 1)
Author: Alena Chernaya
Size: 230 х 230 mm
56 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Awards: National Award Obraz knigi 2019
Rights sold: Vietnam
Bo the elephant is dreamy, Felix the mouse is perky and energetic. Bo and Felix are best friends. Every day they discover the importance of small things in the big world. Story 1. Bo and Felix celebrate Bo’s birthday and learn that if you share joy with someone the joy doesn’t diminish but gets bigger. Story 2. Bo and Felix grow a huge pumpkin out of a small seed and learn the purpose of gardening. ‘Spring’ is the first book in The Big and the Small series.
SUMMER. THE BIG AND THE SMALL (BOOK 2)
Author: Alena Chernaya
Size: 230 х 230 mm
72 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Awards: National Award Obraz knigi 2019
Rights sold: Vietnam
Bo the elephant is dreamy, Felix the mouse is perky and energetic. Bo and Felix are best friends. Every day they discover the importance of small things in the big world. Story 1. One day Bo the elephant shrinks. He becomes as small as a mouse and sees the world in a new way. However he’s happy to get back to his normal size because he likes things to be just the way they are. Story 2. Bo and Felix are doing the laundry. With all the form and bubbles they make they wash not only their clothes but the whole town. Story 3. Bo confesses to Felix that he has a secret. On the way to the park where the secret is hidden they meet the Mole and the Raccoon. All of them have their own secrets too. Like this Bo and Felix find out that the world is full of amazing secrets. ‘Summer’ is the second book in The Big and the Small series.
AUTUMN. THE BIG AND THE SMALL (BOOK 3)
Author: Alena Chernaya
Size: 230 х 230 mm
80 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Awards: National Award Obraz knigi 2019
Rights sold: Vietnam
Bo the elephant is dreamy, Felix the mouse is perky and energetic. Bo and Felix are best friends. Every day they discover the importance of small things in the big world. Story 1. Felix tries to turn back time and accidentally succeeds. Strange things start to happen and like this Felix learns that the time is very fragile. Story 2. Felix, Bo and Maklay the cat find out that danger looks bigger through the eyes of fear. Story 3. Bo wants to become a true artist. Together with Felix he travels to the other side of a paper sheet and learns what the colors are made of. ‘Autumn’ is the third book in The Big and the Small series.
WINTER. THE BIG AND THE SMALL (BOOK 4)
Author: Alena Chernaya
Size: 230 х 230 mm
56 pages
Hardcover
Age: 4+
Awards: National Award Obraz knigi 2019
Rights sold: Vietnam
Bo the elephant is dreamy, Felix the mouse is perky and energetic. Bo and Felix are best friends. Every day they discover the importance of small things in the big world. Story 1. Bo and Felix play the computer games and experience the difference between the real life and virtual reality. Story 2. The New Year is coming. But the festive spirit is not in the air. Bo and Felix knit scarves for their friends, make a huge snowman in the town park, rescue aunt Turtle and the Hedgehogs’ house, help the Rabbit family to find the little Rabbit… and just like that regain their holiday mood. ‘Winter’ is the fourth book in The Big and the Small series.
A TRAGEDY IN THE ARCTIC. ICEBREAKER “KRASSIN” COMES TO THE RESCUE
Author: Vladislav Serov
Illustrator: Vladislav Serov
Size: 220 х 290 mm
64 pages
Hardcover
Age: 7+
This graphic novel depicts a grand rescue mission in the Arctic. In 1928 an Italian aviator, engineer and polar scientist Umberto Nobile organized an expedition to the North Pole on an airship Italia designed by himself. The ship reached the Pole but on the way back it ran into a storm and crashed. Nine men in the crew including Nobile survived. Only several weeks later were they rescued by the Soviet icebreaker ‘Krassin’.
HERO PILOTS. THE “CHELYUSKIN” RESCUE
Author: Vladislav Serov
Illustrator: Vladislav Serov
Size: 220 х 290 mm
64 pages
Hardcover
Age: 7+
A graphic novel celebrating one of the finest epics of Polar exploration. In August 1933 a party of scientists sailed in the Chelyuskin attempting to prove that a cargo vessel could voyage through the North-East Passage in one season. The ship was firmly trapped by the ice pack, then crushed and sank. The expedition camped on the ice and reported its fate by wireless. The rescue was effected in March-April 1934 by a group of 7 Soviet airmen. They had to fly a distance of 150 km either way over ice-fields where landing was impossible, through temperatures which were down to 40 degrees Celsius of frost and through blizzards or thick frozen fogs all the way. As a result, every single soul was rescued, even the dogs and nothing of value was left behind. For their heroism the Soviet Government awarded special decorations to all 7 pilots.
VITUS BERING. THE GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION
Author: Vladislav Serov
Illustrator: Vladislav Serov
Size: 220 х 290 mm
64 pages
Hardcover
Age: 7+
This graphic novel is dedicated to Vitus Bering’s Great Northern Expedition (1734-1743), exploring the north-eastern coast of the Asian continent and the western coast on the North American continent. Vitus Bering was a Danish cartographer and explorer in Russian service, and an officer in the Russian Navy. He was selected by the Tsar to captain an expedition to find out whether Asia and America shared a land border and map the new areas. The Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, Bering Island, the Bering Glacier and the Bering Land Bridge were all named in his honor.
LITTLE MOUSE CHEF
Author: Olga Verbitskaya
Illustrator: Alexander Golubev
Size: 280 х 215 mm
32 pages
Paperback
Age: 3+
Picture Book
А culinary detective story for kids. Chef Mouse wants to cook a very special treat for his dear friend Bear. But what a bad luck! The most important ingredient (milk) suddenly disappears from the pan on the stove. It must have been stolen! Chef Mouse goes all around in search of the milk. He visits all his neighbors: the hare, the squirrel, the hedgehog, the owl. But he doesn’t find milk in their saucepans - just mushrooms, carrots and nuts. When Bear comes for dinner Chef Mouse serves him some nice honey. Both friends enjoy the meal and admire the Milky Way in the starry sky. Oh, the Milky Way! That’s where the milk from the Mouse’ pan has gone. Case solved! (Tip: the milk has just boiled over because…it’s milk!)
THE WOLF AND THE FOX
Illustrator: Nikolay Ustinov
Size: 215 х 280 mm
28 pages
Paperback
Age: 2+
Rights sold: Germany
A famous Russian folk tale about a dodgy Fox who manages to fool everyone around. First, the Fox pretends to be dead and steals all the fish from a peasant's sleigh. Then the Fox teaches the Wolf how to fish so the Wolf's tail gets freezed in the iced river and the Wolf is severely beaten by angry villagers.
ANIMALS' WINTERING
Illustrator: Dmitry Gorlov
Size: 215 х 280 mm
16 pages
Paperback
Age: 2+
A bull, a sheep, a pig, a goose and a rooster are looking for a nice place to spend a winter. They get together and build a wood cabin where they are safe and warm. However a fox, a bear and a wolf tormented by hunger want to attack the cabin and eat the animals.
JUNGLE TALES / CUENTOS DE LA SELVA
Author: Horacio Quiroga (Text rights are in public domain)
Illustrator: Piotr Bagin
Size: 265 х 205 mm
112 pages
Hardcover
Age: 5-9
Fiction
Rights sold: Bulgaria
A collection of short stories by a renowned Uruguayan author Horacio Quiroga (1878 - 1937). Quiroga is often called the “Uruguayan Kipling.” Having lived for several years in the selva - the Latin American jungle, he wrote wonderful tales about the wild inhabitants of these places and their relationships with humans. The book includes six fairy tales. Their plots are unusual, but the essence is simple: help your neighbors, don’t be jealous, listen to your mother, be grateful and kind.
PET’KA
Author: Henrikh Knizhnik
Illustrator: Guennady Yassinsky
Size: 250 х 175 mm
208 pages
Hardcover
Age: 7-10
Fiction
A humorous novel about a pampered urban boy Pet’ka who is sent to a remote village for the summer.
Pet’ka is an 8-years old boy who is a little bit (oh no, a lot!) spoiled by his overprotective mother and grandmother. That is why Pet’ka’s father decides to send his son to the village for the summer. He believes that in the countryside Pet’ka will learn the real life and will become more independent. So Pet’ka ends up in the village, where many funny and sometimes dramatic adventures happen to him. He gets into a lot of trouble at first, but in the end he finds new friends, gains strength of character and a solid life experience.
VIKA
Author: Henrikh Knizhnik
Illustrator: Artem Kostukevitch
Size: 250 х 175 mm
224 pages
Hardcover
Age: 8-12
Fiction
A detective novel about a ten-year-old girl Vika, who can understand the language of animals and birds.
Vika’s unusual gift can be useful both in everyday life (for example, when you need to find a friend in trouble) and in moments of danger (to prevent a tragedy in the circus). But one day gangsters want to take advantage of the girl’s unique abilities. Vika, her school mates and pet animals are facing real danger and have to act boldly.
