Irina Petrovna Tokmakova (born in 1929) belongs to the generation of poets that entered children's literature in the 1950s. She chose one of the most difficult areas - literature for preschoolers.
She tried to write early, during her school years; the first poems were approved by the poet V. Lebedev-Kumach. The poetess considers 1958 to be the beginning of her creative biography, when the first poetic translation of Swedish folk songs for children was published in the Murzilka magazine.
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In 1962 out of print "Little Willy Winky" collection with retellings of Scottish folk songs, made in the best traditions of poetic translations, approved in Soviet children's literature back in the 20-30s by K. Chukovsky and S. Marshak. The image of the gnome Willy-Winky, fabulous, but playful and cheerful, like a child, was a success for the poetess as if he had been created entirely by her creative imagination.
Then, in 1962, the first collection of original poems I. Tokmakova - "Trees". It contains nine poetic sketches about an apple tree, birch, pines, firs, fir, aspen, willow, oak, mountain ash. Not just descriptions of the trees that are most common in a large area of our country are given. Each tree is, as it were, included in the sphere of the child's life. I want to make friends with the apple tree (“I put on a dress with a white border. Little apple tree, make friends with me”). Aspen needs to be warmed up (“Give Osinka a coat and boots, poor Aspen needs to warm up”). You can learn endurance from an oak (“Who said that an oak is afraid to catch a cold? After all, it stays green until late autumn. It means that the oak is hardy, which means it is hardened”). Metaphors and comparisons are simple, direct, laconic: the willow is crying like a little girl who has been pulled by her pigtail; ate-grandmothers listen, are silent, look at the "grandchildren" - small Christmas trees; birch, if she had been given a comb, she would have braided her pigtail in the morning. Thus, metaphors develop into personifications that are close and understandable to children.
The book "Trees" was followed by the collections "Rings", "Where the Fish Sleeps", "Grain", "Evening Tale", "Let's Go", "Kittens", "Crow", "Merry and Sad". S. Marshak, evaluating the first creative steps of the poetess, noted that in her poems there is an immediate feeling, fantasy and verbal play; harmony and completeness of form.
Released in 1967 collection "Carousel", in which it was published the main thing written by Tokmakova in ten years. I. Tokmakova becomes a recognized master of poetry for preschoolers.
One of favorite genres I. Tokmakova is literary tale. "Evening Tale", "Kukareku", "Bukvarinsk", "Kittens" became a good contribution of the poetess to the upbringing of the child's soul.
"Evening Tale"(1965) absorbed, on the one hand, traditions of literary tales, and on the other hand, folklore: elements of lullabies and fairy tales are guessed in it.
The active role belongs to the narrator. Function conception execute the lines:
I've been wandering in the woods all day
I look - it's already evening on the nose.
There is no more sun in the sky
All that's left is a red mark
The firs fell silent.
Oak fell asleep.
In the darkness, the hazel tree sank.
Sleepy pine fell silent.
And there was silence:
And the crossbill is silent, and the thrush is silent,
And the woodpecker no longer knocks.
These lines create a certain mood, conducive to the perception of a fairy-tale situation. Here there are still no openly expressed fairy-tale images, but everything is adjacent to them, everything is on the border between metaphor, personification and anthropomorphization: the fir trees have subsided, the oak has fallen asleep, the pine tree has sleepily subsided. The child seems to be transferred to a fairy-tale forest, which should come to life and speak. And he comes to life: the owl hooted and spoke:
Wow! Time is wasted,
Dawn faded in the sky.
Let's drag the screamer
Until the moon came out.
She answered the second. The conversation of owls serves eyeball fabulous situation. The narrator learns that the owls are going to steal and turn into an owlet the boy Zhenya, who does not sleep at night and, capriciously, shouts:
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Don't ask me
Does not matter
Whole bed
I'll turn over
I don't wish
Better for owls
This boy is the narrator's neighbor. He is five and a half years old, he himself knows how to eat porridge, draw a battleship, train angry dogs. The only drawback of this "strange boy" is that he "screams, rages and roars all night long."
The narrator, who is also the hero of the tale, wants to save Zhenya - to get ahead of the owls. owls - hero antagonists in a fairy tale. But there is also friends, magic helpers. it woodpecker, mouse, mole, fireflies, which together help the narrator find his way through the dark forest and run home before the owls. Fairy tale test ends successfully, the denouement is simple: as soon as Zhenya found out that the owls want to bewitch him, he immediately fell silent and since then "as soon as they say:" It's time to sleep, "he falls asleep until the morning." ending: “But owls don’t sleep at night, capricious guys guard” - does not lead out of a fairy-tale situation, keeping it as an admonition to capricious children, similar to what is found in lullabies, like “a gray top will come, he will grab the barrel and drag him into the woods ".
So in "Evening Tale" there is the evolution of fairy-tale folklore and the development of the traditions of a literary, author's fairy tale. pa it, as you can see, goes back to the composition of folk tales (beginning, motive of the hero's journey, one's own and another's, antagonistic world, fairy test, ending). At the same time, the story clearly shows author's individuality. First of all, it expresses in the rhythm of the verse, in its mobility, variability depending on the situational twists and characteristics of the characters. Either this is the rhythm of a lullaby (in the beginning, for example), or an intermittent rhythm filled with alliterations (in the dialogue of owls), or a drawn-out rhythm of crying (the boy's monologue repeated three times). Unusually given and the image of the hero. This is both a hero and a narrator, so there is no description of him from the side, through the eyes of others. The child himself comes to the conclusion that he is a kind, sympathetic person. Transformed and travel motive: the hero wanders through the forest without a specific goal - she appears later, when the owls reveal their plan to him.
In 1980 was published collection "Summer downpour"", which included the best works Tokmakova, created twenty years of work. The book is divided into several sections. In one - poems from the collections "Trees", "Grain", "Where the fish sleeps", "Merry and sad", "Conversations"; in the other - poetic tales ("Evening Tale", "Crow", "The Tale of the Sazanchik", "Kittens"); in the third - the prose stories "Rostik and Kesha", "Alya, Klyaksich and the letter "A".
The injustice of adults towards a child is a very serious conflict, which is developed by the poetess in such poems as “This is no one’s cat”, “I hate Tarasov”, “How Friday drags on”, “I can stand in the corner”. But here, too, Tokmakova's poetry does not lose its inherent major. Only the nature of the major changes.
Previously, she was a naive acceptance of all new experiences: "Little apple tree, make friends with me!"; "Fish, fish, where do you sleep?"; "Let's go along the bridge, we'll come to visit the sun." Now this is an active manifestation of his position by a small person: “But he is quite an adult - he could not tell a lie!”; I hate Tarasov. Let him go home! “I didn’t take this red cufflink, why are you talking in vain!”. Tokmakova's poems are full of inner movement, even when, as in the examples given, they are monologues of a lyrical hero.
Tokmakova's poetry was dialogic, as critics noted, already in the early period: questions and answers, riddles and riddles are a characteristic feature of her skill:
Who said that the oak is afraid to catch a cold?
After all, until late autumn it is green ...
In the mature poems of the poetess, dialogic becomes polemical, its content changes:
It's nobody's cat
She doesn't have a name.
At the broken window
What kind of life does she have here?
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The cat's paw hurts.
And take her to an apartment
My neighbor won't let me.
In every line there is a controversy with soullessness: pain for a "no one's" cat, a protest against those who offend the weak. Poetry Tokmakova - humanistic poetry, it awakens active kindness, develops in line with those moral ideas that were inherent in both the oral creativity of the people and classical literature.
Prose constitutes a kind of section of creativity Tokmakova. Tale "The Pines Are Noisy", "Growths of Kesh", fairy tale "Alya, Klyaksich and the letter" A ", poetic essays "Far - Nigeria" and "Blue Mountains, Golden Plains" firmly attracted the attention of children.
The creative talent of Irina Tokmakova is multifaceted, and it is all the more important that the main addressee of her books is a child of preschool age. This gives purposefulness and depth to her poetic search, which has been going on for more than a quarter of a century.
THE THEME OF HUMOR AND SATIRE.
On occasion, I remembered my second favorite childhood fairy tale (the first - "Buka" - "It's dark outside the window, not a sound, the moon rises from behind the forest ... A gray-haired, shaggy Buka with a bag walks along the road. Owls fly off her shoulder ..." ).
I save so as not to lose)).
I spent the whole day wandering in the forest.
I look - it's already evening on the nose.
There is no more sun in the sky
Only a red mark remained.
The fir trees fell silent, the oak fell asleep.
In the darkness, the hazel tree sank.
Sleepy pine fell silent.
And there was silence.
And the crossbill is silent, and the thrush is silent,
And the woodpecker no longer knocks.
Suddenly I hear - an owl hooted,
So much so that the foliage shuddered:
– Whoo! Time is wasted,
Dawn faded in the sky.
Let's drag the screamer
Until the moon came out. -
The other grumbled in response:
- I haven't finished my lunch. -
And again the first: - Wow!
You are always talking nonsense.
We won't make it:
After all, they can lock the doors.
Throw lunch, we're flying now.
Let's take it - and the tale is over.
I parted the branches with my shoulder
And he shouted: - Owls, what are you talking about?
After cleaning the beak, one of them
I answered for two:
There is a strange boy in the world.
He himself knows how to eat porridge,
Battleship can draw
And train evil dogs.
But they will only say: "It's time to sleep!" -
He roar starts until the morning:
"Don't put out the fire,
Don't ask me
I still can't sleep
Turn the whole bed
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
We reasoned: so and so,
Since this little weirdo
Doesn't want to sleep at night
He needs to become an owl.
We'll take the boy to the hollow,
Let's say five terrible words,
Let's give magic grass
And turn him into an owl.-
Here the owls rose from the branches
And they were carried away into the darkness of the night.
I knew where they were going
Who do they want to bewitch?
After all, this is Zhenya, my neighbor,
He is five and a half years old
And he's all night long
Screams, rages and roars:
"Don't put out the fire,
Don't ask me
I still can't sleep
Turn the whole bed
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
How to get ahead of these owls?
How can I warn Zhenya?
No one can help me
It's completely dark, it's night.
The mist has risen,
A star lit up in the sky...
I rushed to wake the woodpecker:
- Listen, woodpecker, how can I be?
My best friend is in trouble
And I can't find a way...
The woodpecker thought, was silent
And shook his head:
- I'm not going to put my mind to it.
I'm going to wake up the mouse. -
Now a mouse has come running
And she squeaked: - Why are you sad?
After all, my friend is an old mole
Dug a straight underground passage.
You can go straight
You won't go astray there. -
And despite the darkness
I ran to the mole.
But here again trouble awaited:
The move was wide with a mole!
Well, how do I go on the road,
When can't I fit in it?
You'll have to wander on top
But how to find a path in the darkness?
Glasses won't help me...
But the woodpecker called out: “Fireflies!” -
And the fireflies came
Such good bugs
And immediately the darkness receded,
And I ran like an arrow
Like a runner
like a helicopter
Like a jet!
Here I am at home. Owls before!
Familiar Zhenkin hear the roar:
"Don't put out the fire,
Don't ask me
I still can't sleep
Turn the whole bed
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
I shouted: - Zhenya, brother, trouble!
After all, two owls are flying here!
Here you made a mess! -
And I told him everything.
And Zhenya immediately fell silent,
As if he had never screamed in his life.
And more he in the evenings
Does not raise rams.
As soon as they say: "It's time to sleep!" -
He sleeps until morning.
And owls don't sleep at night
Capricious guys are guarded.
I do not presume to claim that I know all the variants of Lev Tokmakov's illustrations for "An Evening Tale" by Irina Tokmakova. But today I wanted to re-read it and compare the drawings in at least those three books that were at hand.
Separate editions of "Evening Tale" were published in the series "My First Books" - in 1968 and 1983.
I met a slightly earlier version of the illustrations in the collection "Carousel" of 1967:
In the collection of 1967, on 8 pages reserved for a fairy tale, the main thing is rapid movement. First - a rush to him, which is already felt in the rapid inclination of the protagonist (a typical intellectual of the 60s). This slope is the diagonal on which the entire reversal composition is built:
On the following pages, the harbingers of movement and anxiety are the curtains flung up on the window:
On the third turn, everything is subject to movement. Owls frowning in flight and an absolutely stunning silhouette picture:
The movement ends with the slam of the open door and the impetuous gesture of the adult hero:
Bright, concise, finished.
The "Evening Tale" of 1968 has 16 pages and, despite the presence of only two colors - black and white, there are much more lyrical shades. A village evening, a walk through the woods... The book begins with such a quiet note:
And the main character is not an impetuous young intellectual, but a short-sighted eccentric in thick glasses, the lenses of which gleam in the evening light:
And the fairy tale almost does not look like a fairy tale, its situation is so real:
Pay attention to the boy Zhenya. In the editions of the 60s, he is an ordinary cheerful tomboy:
In the book of 1968, there was a place for the dialogue of an eccentric with a woodpecker, a mouse and a mole:
And here is his run from the dense evening forest to the lights of the village:
The last spread almost repeats the drawing from the "Carousel" collection, but how the movements of the eccentric are broken, they do not have the wholeness of the impulse that we saw before:
The book of 1983 is made in a completely different manner. The main character is a modern "tourist" in a baseball cap and with a camera. And Zhenya is no longer a tomboy, but a real capricious. And the fairy tale is real, so toy and warm.
This is how it always happens: you are looking for something by relatives and friends of a rabbit for about 10 years, and asking Uncle Google comes to mind after the statute of limitations has expired.
Hooray! Young Emil's favorite book has been found!
It's a fun time for everyone!
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Irina Tokmakova,
"Evening Tale", 1983
I've been wandering in the woods all day
I look - it's already evening on the nose.
There is no more sun in the sky
All that's left is a red mark
The fir trees fell silent, the oak fell asleep.
In the darkness, the hazel tree drowned.
Sleepy pine subsided
And there was silence:
And the crossbill is silent, and the thrush is silent,
And the woodpecker no longer knocks.
Suddenly I hear - an owl hooted,
So much so that the foliage trembled:
– Whoo! Time is wasted,
Dawn faded in the sky,
Let's drag the screamer
Until the moon came out. -
The second grunted in response:
- I haven't finished my lunch. -
And again the first: - Wow!
You are always talking nonsense.
We won't be able to fly
After all, they can lock the doors.
Drop lunch, let's fly now
Let's take it and the story is over.
I parted the branches with my shoulder
And he shouted: -Owls, what are you talking about?
After cleaning the beak, one of them
I answered for two:
There is a strange boy in the world.
He himself knows how to eat porridge,
Battleship can draw
And train evil dogs.
But they will only say: "It's time to sleep!" -
He roar starts until the morning:
"Don't extinguish
fire,
don't ask
me,
Does not matter
I won't sleep
Whole bed
turn over,
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
We reasoned: so and so,
Since this little weirdo
Doesn't want to sleep at night
He needs to become an owl.
We'll bring the boy into the hollow,
Let's say five terrible words,
Let's give magic grass
And turn him into an owl. -
Here the owls rose from the branches
And they were carried away into the darkness of the night.
I knew where they were going
Who do they want to bewitch?
After all, this is Zhenya, my neighbor,
He is five and a half years old
And he's all night long
Screams, rages and roars:
"Don't extinguish
fire,
don't ask
me,
Does not matter
I won't sleep
Whole bed
turn over,
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
How to get ahead of these owls?
How can I warn Zhenya?
No one can help me
It's completely dark, it's night.
The mist has risen,
A star lit up in the sky...
I rushed to wake the woodpecker:
- Listen, woodpecker, how can I be?
My best friend is in trouble
And I can't find the way...
The woodpecker thought, was silent
And shook his head:
- I won't put my mind to it
I'm going to wake up the mouse. -
Now a mouse has come running
And she squeaked: “What are you sad about?
After all, my friend is an old mole
Dug a straight underground passage.
You can go straight
You won't go astray there. -
And despite the darkness
I ran to the mole.
But here I was in trouble:
The move was wide with a mole!
Well, how do I go on the road,
When will I not fit in it?
You have to climb on top
But how to find a path in the darkness?
Glasses won't help me...
But the woodpecker called out: “Fireflies!” -
And the fireflies came
Such good bugs
And immediately the darkness receded,
And I ran like an arrow
Like a runner
like a helicopter
Like a jet!
Here I am at home. Owls before!
Ordinary Zhenkin hear the roar:
"Don't extinguish
fire,
don't ask
me,
Does not matter
I won't sleep
Whole bed
turn over,
I don't wish
I can not,
Better for owls
I'll run away..."
I shouted: - Zhenya, brother, trouble!
After all, two owls are flying here!
Here you made a mess! -
And I told him everything.
And Zhenya immediately fell silent,
As if he had never screamed in his life.
And more he in the evenings
Does not raise rams.
As soon as they say: "It's time to sleep!"
He sleeps until morning.
And owls don't sleep at night
Capricious guys are guarded.
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The name of the poetess Irina Tokmakova is well known in children's literature. She began writing in the 1950s. A philologist and translator by profession, Tokmakova chose children's literature not by chance. Irina's childhood was military, her mother worked in an orphanage. According to the memoirs of the poetess, at home all the conversations were about children: who is sick, who is recovering, who is gifted, who is athletic. This was the choice of the children's direction in literature.
Tokmakova's first book was in the full sense of the family. She translated Scottish songs for her little son, and her husband drew illustrations. So the book "Little Wily Winky" appeared. In translations, the writer uses the lessons of Marshak, a pillar of children's literature, and focuses not on the letter, but on the level of children's perception.
"An Evening Tale" is an instructive story for children who are difficult to put to bed in the evenings. The tale is written in the major rhythm that corresponds to the movements of the child. The poem sounds like the reader is making up a story as they go along. 
Here Tokmakova skillfully uses the intonation and emotional mood peculiar only to her poems. The narration is in the first person, it is interesting to observe how the intonation changes throughout the poem. In the first lines we see a tired man who "wandered in the forest all day long." The setting is described in short, simple sentences. And we feel that night is falling on the earth, everyone is getting ready to sleep. Everything is quiet, only the hooting of an owl is heard. And here appears a fabulous intonation, fabulous images. Owls, it turns out, can talk and told the author a story about a boy who knows how to do everything, is very smart, capable, only he can’t go to bed in the evenings and “roar gets you up until the morning.” The situation is common, probably, many parents are faced with the fact that the baby does not want to go to bed. What awaits the little brawler, the hero of Tokmakova? The owls decided to take him to their place and with the help of magic grass turn him into an owlet. 
The author recognizes his neighbor Zhenya in the story of the owls and hurries to him to warn him about the owl's plan. The rhythm and intonation of the poem changes. Together with the author, we are running, we are worried about Zhenya. And then bad luck, the author got lost, he asks the woodpecker to help, he woke up the mouse, called the fireflies. The whole animal world came to the rescue, and the author, like an arrow, a runner, a helicopter, a jet plane rushed to Zhenya and managed to do it before the owls. He told the neighbor boy what he heard in the forest, and Zhenya realized that the jokes were over. 
And again, with a calm homely intonation, Tokmakova finishes the story of a naughty boy, the tension disappears, everything is fine with Zhenya. But owls do not sleep, they guard naughty guys.
The writer tells this story about Zhenya in the expectation that the children, having heard her, will do the same as Zhenya, and will no longer arrange ramblings in the evenings. Images of a sympathetic neighbor and his forest helpers will serve as an example of humanity and will contribute to moral education. In addition, the book carries not only instructive information, but also introduces kids to forest dwellers.
The book is made in good quality on coated sheets. The colorful illustrations by Nina Noskovich are age-appropriate and not overloaded with details. Realistic drawings have a touch of fabulousness, owls are endowed with character, the artist gave them a conspiratorial, cunning look so as not to scare the little reader. Here we see a mysterious forest, for the image of which shades of purple are used, a kind woodpecker, a responsive mouse.
Buy the book Evening TaleThanks to the duet of Tokmakova and Noskovich, this book turned out to be interesting, informative and exciting. And special thanks to the Rech publishing house for publishing Tokmakova’s work in the Mom’s Favorite Book series. Such authors should not be forgotten.