Пoдаруй Ми Писаночку

Present an Easter Egg to Me

Author:  Маргарита Бойко (Marharyta Boyko)

Edition:  1st

Format:  Small format hardcover

Pages:   96         

Language:  Ukrainian (English introduction)

Illustrations:  Many, color

Publisher:  «Надія» (Ivano-Frankivsk, 2001)

Availability:  Yes, on-line retailers

Acquired:  Museum of the Pysanka (Kolomiya)

ISBN:  5-7745-0868-4

This small book (less than seven inches square in size) is more of a souvenir than anything else.  The book is quite lovely, with lots of colorful illustrations; even the endsheets are worth a good look:

They depict, in New Yorker fashion, an Ivano-Frankivsk local’s view of the world.

The book has a short introduction, which has been translated into English, and which describes the talismanic origins of the pysanka, with a little bit of history, and a brief description of the pysanka-making process. 

The rest of the book is photos, drawings, poems and pysanka lore.  The photos are almost all scenic views of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, including mountain scenery in the Carpathians and buildings in Kolomiya (including the Museum of the Pysanka) and other towns.

The drawings are of  pysanky, real, imagined, and fantastical.  The poems are short (and without attribution1), and include the poem from which the book takes its title:

The pysanka lore consists of the same information that is found in countless other pysanka books: simple symbolism, folk beliefs, the chained monster, the Rakhmany, and numerous other legends.

It is a nice little book and would make a nice little gift.

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1. 1.There is a list of authors and artists at the end of the book, but one has no idea of what any of them contributed.  There is also no index or table of contents, so finding things is hit or miss.
   

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