Winter

Winter is the fourth book in the Big and Little series. The book includes two fairy tales: "About real and virtual life", "A story in which everything ends and immediately begins again."

In the first story, Felix persuades Bo to take him to an Internet club where a baby elephant has been disappearing all day lately. Beau agrees reluctantly, knowing that Felix is ​​always going in the wrong direction. Bo explains to a friend what a monitor, keyboard, and "mouse" are. The fact that the “mouse” controls everything seems right to Felix. The club is quiet, the visitors are sitting, buried in their screens. Bo is also immersed in the "walker" game and forgets about his friend for a while. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen in the game: the river crossing that Bo was going to do is already built, the thistle thickets are mowed, the boat that was supposed to be waiting for him on the shore is rocking on the waves, and a sad Felix is ​​sitting in the boat and chewing a piece of cheese in disgust . How he got there is unknown, but the little mouse is clearly uncomfortable there. Everything there is fake, without taste and smell. Even porcupine quills don't prick! Here the problems begin with others: it is clear that a malicious virus has penetrated the network! But it's not a virus, it's Felix. So he would have sat in the virtual world, if not for the lightning that flashed and cut out the light. And when the light came on again, the little mouse stood on the edge of the table and nibbled the fragrant apple with pleasure. The present!

The city is waiting for snow, but there is still no snow. Felix knits all the time, Bo, looking at him, too, although he does not like this activity. Suddenly, they realize that there are only three days until the New Year, and they have nothing ready. But first you need to knit scarves for the cat Maclay and the giraffe Innokenty so that they do not freeze. Then make a snowman for the city - the snow has finally fallen! Then they pull out the old turtle Aunt Idu-Idu from the snowdrift, dig out the house of her hedgehog friends, and then find the lost hare. For these things, time flies by unnoticed, and friends understand that they don’t even have a Christmas tree to celebrate the holiday. But then the Christmas tree itself floats into the house of an elephant calf on the backs of hedgehogs. The giraffe brings tinsel, the turtle brings pineapple, the hares bring cabbage pie. Bo and Felix sit by the Christmas tree and make wishes. They have a lot of new, interesting and magical things ahead of them.

This book was invented and painted by the artist Alena Chernaya. First came the stories she told her little daughter and other children. The heroes of these stories never get bored, and miracles happen to them in the most ordinary places: at home, on the street, in the park. Then came the idea for a book and the illustrations. In 2019, the series "About Big and Small" won the "Image of a Book" competition in the "Author's Book" nomination.

Recommended for reading aloud to children ages 3 and up.