This transadaptation of a traditional Slavic folktale, in a superbly inventive and humorous version by Siân Valvis, author of Kolobok, is a world of talking animals and madcap schemes that twist and turn like the sorcerous snake at its heart. It is a wonderful book both for reading aloud and for early readers.

The tale originates in a 1930s version by the writer Boris Shergin who wrote in his local – Pomor – dialect, which was periodically suppressed during the Soviet period. It is beautifully illustrated by Dovilé Valvis and designed by Bureau Bureau.

ISBN: 978-1-906257-44-6

With The Magic Ring, Sian Valvis has created a language of her own. She draws on many sources – Yorkshire dialect, cockney slang, Lewis Carroll – but she fuses these elements into a perfect unity. Throughout all the many journeys – wanderrambling through forests, gliding along glysstal bridges, slinking through prison bars – the story never loses its impetus, the language never ceases to dance. (Robert Chandler, editor and main translator of Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov)