Nikolenka's Childhood Author:Leo Tolstoy; Maurice Sendak illustrations; Intro by Earnest J. Simmons From: "Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth" by Leo Tolstoy. Translated for young readers by Louise & Arthur Maude, Oxford University Press, 1930; reprinted by permission. Illustrations copyright 1963 by Maurice Sendak. — Nikolenka's Childhood . . . was the first book by Leo Tolstoy ever to appear in print. Although the events it describes are ficti... more »onal, it can also be regarded as partly biographical. It offers a marvelous insight into a young boy's life in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Through the descriptive genius of Leo Tolstoy, the young reader will come to know the unforgetable characters in this story: Karl Ivanich, the tutor; Natalia Savishna, the faithful housekeeper; Grisha, the madman of God; lovely, irresistible Sonia; the stately grandmother; and above all, seen almost as if through the veil of memory, Nikolenka's wonderfully kind, loving mother.« less