Award-winning series comes together in one adventuresome volume

Marion Mutala’s Baba’s Babushka: Magical Ukrainian Adventures is an all-in-one gathering of the three books in her award-winning Baba’s Babushka series: A Magical Ukrainian Christmas, A Magical Ukrainian Easter, and A Magical Ukrainian Wedding – along with the brand new A Magical Ukrainian Journey.

The stories feature Natalia, a blonde-braided little girl who is missing her recently deceased baba. With the help of a magical babushka, Natalia travels back in time to Ukraine where she experiences Christmas, Easter, a wedding, and a visit to Kyiv that her grandparents took just before she was born.

The stories all start in Hafford, Saskatchewan, says Mutala, because her own Dido and Baba who immigrated from Ukraine in 1911 and 1912 settled on a farm in that area. “My grandparents were my inspiration,” she says. “I always wondered what life was like for them as new immigrants.”

Mutala recalls a family photo: “My baba was wearing a babushka like all married women at the time – so I created a magic babushka, which solves my problem of time travelling.”

The illustrations in the book are based on people in Mutala’s family. “I am the little girl, Natalia, and my dad, August Mutala, is the dido,” she says. Her baba and dido appear in a photograph on the wall in each book, and her mom, Sophie Dubyk, is in the sky lovingly watching over Natalia in each story.

Saskatoon-based Wendy Siemens, the illustrator for the Christmas and Easter books, grew up in a family of artists. “I have been an artist all my life, as is my brother Grant,” she says. “We both were inspired by our mother who painted large and difficult works constantly when we were children.”

Olha Tkachenko, illustrator for A Magical Ukrainian Journey, is also from a family of artists – her father, Oleg Lipchenko, is an award-winning illustrator. “He taught me drawing and painting when I was small,” she says. “He also inspired me to try the career of illustrator.”

Now Tkachenko lives in Toronto where she runs a successful illustrator’s business. She’s illustrated more than 30 books, including her own series of books based on Ukrainian folk tales, in the past four years.

“I’ve worked on a few of Marion’s books before,” says Tkachenko, “and I really love to cooperate with her. I’ve been working on this project at the time of the pandemic, and it was a gift for me; I felt like I got a trip to my homeland I’m missing so much.”

Amber Rees, illustrator of A Magical Ukrainian Wedding, is newer to book illustration, having worked mainly as an animator, sculptor, and puppet fabricator in film and TV in Saskatoon.

“The wonderful story and Marion’s lovely warmth and enthusiasm made it really easy to want to participate,” she says about taking on this project. “Illustrating a book had been one of my life goals, so it was a welcome challenge.”

Mutala fans can expect more books soon. Watch for a murder mystery, The Mechanic’s Wife, and Live Well, a book of short stories, coming out this year.

“I get ideas all the time,” Mutala says. “It seems the more I write, the more the ideas flow.”