Elena Makarova is famous for her books on the subject of childhood. Many of her former students have now become teachers, art-therapists and artists. Her books form an integral part of the compulsory reading programme in teaching institutions. Makarova currently practises within a group of art-therapists and psychologists, apart from running seminars all over the world.
This two-volume book is cleverly constructed. The first book “How to Sculpt a Scoff” is documentary in nature, and describes the workings of the creative process and of childish ideas of the world. “Why do we try so hard to make children like us? Are we so perfect?” asks the author. This was the same question that was asked by Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who saved the souls of children in concentration camp by giving them drawing lessons. The second part of the book is dedicated to her.

“The Foreign Popinjay” is an autobiographical tale about childhood, and tells the story of a romantic young girl who enters the sad and often cruel world of adults, and decides to become a teacher.
“The world of childhood is a special one,” says the author. And to gain access to this world you need a special code. “I am very lucky in life,” she says. “I love everything I do and everyone I work with. And that feeling is mutual.”

My book is variegated with genre, like a Persian carpet – slightly moth-eaten, but still adequate for a flight-of-fancy. The act of writing is not capable of turning a director into a rational, bourgeois citizen, but it at least assuages my pathological desire to constantly talk to people.
Vladimir Mirzoyev

This book is written for children, but it can be enjoyed by adults too. Fof, as a rule, neither adults nof children know anything about ballet. That's why many of them think that ballet is boring, complicated and all about swans. Actually, ballet is a wonderfully fascinating thing to be interested in. For instance, the author of this book, Yulia Yakovleva, has been writing about ballet for the past ten years, and hasn't had a single moment of regret. In The Alphabet of Ballet, she talks about how difficult, and for most of us downright impossible, it is to dance with the grace and magic of a ballerina. This book is brimming with historical detail, legends, myths, jokes and anecdotes about ballet.