Children's Christmas Book Introduces Little-Known Russian Culture

A new title from Vernissage Press gets kids three and older ready for Christmas with a few fun-to-say foreign words and some fascinating folk characters and traditions from a far-away country.

Boulder, CO (PRWEB) March 28, 2005 -- "How the Russian Snow Maiden Helped Santa Claus" broadens a child's world view with a lesson in self-image: the importance of being yourself.
   
Santa Claus is overworked one year and writes his friend Father Frost, the Russian Santa, to ask if the Snow Maiden, Frosts helper, could come to the North Pole and pitch in. Since Russian children do not open their presents until New Years. Father Frost agrees and sends the Snow Maiden to the North Pole. He gives her a nesting doll (a matryoshka) to remind her of home. Playing with the doll consoles the Snow Maiden as she worries that she is not being enough help to Santa. When the littlest piece of the doll is lost, her woes are worsened and she despairs of being only a little girl." When the piece is found, Santa discovers the perfect gift he needed for this year's new Christmas toy. And the Snow Maiden learns a lesson in being herself.
   
Author Gail Buyske has been collecting Russian folk art since her first trip to Russia in 1975 as a Russian language student. As a grown-up banker with degrees from Middlebury, Princeton, and Columbia, she lived in Moscow for three years. She is the editor of the award-winning The Art of the Russian Matryoshka, also published by Vernissage Press. This is her first book for children. Gail, her husband, and her matryoshka dolls live in New York.
   
Illustrator Natasha Voronina is an artist who lives in Sergiev Posad, a town outside of Moscow where the first Russian nesting doll was made over a hundred years ago. Natasha studied at the Technical College of Toys and is known for the unique and heart-warming style of her matryoshka dolls. This is her first book. Natasha has three children, all of whom are studying to be artists.
   
"When I saw one of Natasha's dolls in a museum, I knew she was the artist for The Snow Maiden," said Buyske. "If only finding her was as easy. I went through doll sellers and friends and friends of friends to contact her. It was part of the challenge and the fun of creating this book."
   
"How the Russian Snow Maiden Helped Santa Claus" (ISBN 0972502742, 32 pages hardbound, 8.75"x10.75", $16.95, available through Baker&Taylor) will be introduced at Book Expo 2005 at the Javitts Center in New York, exibited at the PMA booth, with a publication date set for August 2005.
   
Vernissage Press is a new publisher with substantial acclaim for its definitive volume "The Art of the Russian Matryoshka," which won recognition in 2004 from Publishers Marketing Association's Ben Franklin Awards (Finalist, Coffee Table Books) and Writers Notes Magazine (Best Art Book).
   
For advance copies and author interviews, contact: Rick Hibberd, VP Marketing, at rick@vernissagepress.com or toll-free (888) 849-8697.

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