Siyana Zaharieva - Victor and the Magical Fairy

Looking at us from the cover of Victor and the Magical Fairy is the princess of the bees. It looks like a Renaissance portrait painted in oils. This is the first book illustrated by Siyana Zaharieva, published back in 2011. A story with a happy ending. The main character, Victor, is a child who scowls at everything. The milk, the apples, even the sun’s rays in the morning. But an unexpected encounter changes that. As he’s eating a slice of bread with honey, something tumbles down onto it. “It’s a magical fairy!” he says to himself and puts her away in a box “to keep all for himself.” This little book is about the path to happiness, which turns out lies in being good and not being selfish. Siyana Zaharieva’s illustrations are located on the two facing pages. Each turn of the page opens a new scene of the action. The text is integrated into the compositions, with accented parts of it written by hand. The style of painting with thickly laid acrylic is more characteristic of classical painting, and this gives the book a special aura. Interesting lay-outs, close-ups, and angles are all part of the canon of good illustration.