"The Sea Around the Corner" is a collection of stories for children and, arguably, one of the dazzling peaks of modern children's book illustration. Everything about this book is unusual. The way it looks. The questions it illuminates. How it reaches into the soul. How it comforts. How it excites. The book is restless, as if dancing, glittering, shimmering – like the sea. The author claims that it's around the corner, which is why everything around you has suddenly changed. And your choice is to lie down on the sea, listen to the sea, pretend to be an unidentified floating object, but in the end, the sea must be used somehow; you can't ignore it, overlook it, ignore it, or fail to notice it. Although... people are charged by the Earth, like a battery, and that's why they're cheerful. And those who are sad, apparently, need their charger repaired. There's no contradiction in all this. There's the tender prose of the wonderful children's author Anastasia Orlova, whose rich imagery is masterfully embodied in Ekaterina Lavrentyeva's illustrations. The artist's complex, multi-layered technique, the suddenness of each page, each poem, is so powerful—ah!—it's impossible to contain your emotions. You've never seen anything like it anywhere, but you have to see it and gasp. A new step in the art of children's book illustration; a long shared journey for the writer and artist that led them to the top. It's wonderful to follow them with your child; when they grow up, they'll be grateful for this opportunity.