Olya Tkachenko Illustrations

I got the idea of creating a series of books with traditional Ukrainian folk tales at the time of working at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Saskatoon. I always admire how the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada saves national traditions. At the same time, I noticed the luck of the folklore stories that would be nicely translated into English and illustrated for modern kids. So in 2016, I started working on the series. 

In 2018 I got the first grant from the Ukrainian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko in support of my work on "The Turnip" book. In 2019 and 2020, the Foundation gave a grant for continuing the series with the books "The Mitten" and "Sirko". I retold the stories, translated them into English, created illustrations, and published them under the name of my small publishing company Little Big Me.

At this time there are five of them are ready: "Kolobok," "The Ear of Wheat", "The Turnip", "The Mitten" and "Sirko".

The books are available for purchase at the Little Big Me online store