★ Winner of the 2025 non/fictio “Illustrator” Award for continuing the best traditions of the Samuil Marshak–Vladimir Lebedev era at Detgiz! Short-listed for the DAFES AWARDS in the children’s book category.
★ In 2021, Zina Surova’s illustrations for *A Blue Feather* won the international “Image of the Book” Prize in the “Author’s Book” category.
★ Based on four real family trips, sketched and written on location to preserve an unfiltered sense of presence.
★ First-person narration from a child’s point of view, capturing raw emotions in the face of storms, starlit skies, and adventure—perfectly relatable to young readers.
★ Collage illustrations incorporate real textures from island granite, bark, and feathers, creating a tactile “bring Lake Ladoga home” reading experience.
★ Covers nature observation, parent-child interaction, and light outdoor knowledge—without a hint of didacticism. A living example of how to turn a vacation into deep companionship.
★ Oversize full-color printing ideal for family, classroom, or library sharing; equally collectible as an art book.
★ For everyone who loves family travel, modern illustration, unconventional artistic techniques, and original author styles.

*A Blue Feather* is a family journal that transports the very atmosphere of the trip onto the page—a living demonstration of how to turn a vacation into deep companionship. Zina and Philip Surov, together with their children, ventured four times into the Ladoga Archipelago, capturing every surprise, mishap, joy, and still moment with pen and brush:
• Paddling kayaks through a maze of islets in search of that night’s campsite.
• Treading smooth granite boulders while identifying lichen colors.
• Baking bread over a campfire beneath the Milky Way spilled like milk.
• Holding their breath behind a reef, waiting for a seal’s wet head to appear.

Narrated by young Fyodor (Feya), the book lets readers see everything through his eyes: island camping, storms, bonfires, lichen-covered boulders, wild expeditions, scattered islands, kayaks, campfires, fishing, swimming, seals, blueberries, moss, and lichen… When a storm hits, he and his sister drag their boat ashore; when fog blocks the channel, he uses a “moon float” to find direction; at nightfall, he records the sound of waves in his journal. Beyond the text, Zina collages real textures—rock, bark, lake water, feathers—into the pictures so readers can almost feel rough moss or hear wings beat.

This is not a “how-to-survive in the wild” guide but a “how-to-turn days into living poetry with your family” masterclass: no sermons, only continuous observation, dialogue, and mutual encouragement. When you close the book, what lingers may not be the route but the glow on your child’s face the first time they stir a campfire with a wooden spoon. Bursting with vibrant sketches, emotion, curious facts, and delicate observation, it invites children to see the world through their own eyes and offers parents a springboard for meaningful conversation—making it ideal for family reading.

[Author & Illustrator] Zina Surova
A creator who is an author, illustrator, and designer all in one. She conceives and produces books together with her husband, the designer Filipp Surov. To date, they have collaboratively published over twenty types of children's books and educational board games. Surova loves nature, enjoys forests, boating, and playing with children. She has personally planted more than a hundred trees and spent her childhood and teenage years by the sea in Sevastopol. Her parents founded a local art school there, and her father often read to her and accompanied her in studies. This rich childhood experience is like a treasure trove, continuously nourishing her creations.

Surova adheres to a holistic creative philosophy, believing a book is not just about illustrations, but the organic unity of concept, text, design, and imagery. She is committed to allowing readers – both children and adults – to immerse themselves in the world of a book as if entering a house or a magical country. She excels at flexibly choosing various media for creation based on the theme of different projects, including acrylics, watercolors, pen, colored cardboard, pencils, ink, and even comprehensively using materials like clay, metal, and wood to suit the unique character of each work.

She particularly regrets the common abandonment of illustrations in adult books and advocates for illustrating literary classics, imagining how works by authors like Joyce, Pavić, or Kafka would be even more captivating with illustrations. Her representative works include the children's books "Find It," "Use Your Brain," "Attack, Universe!," "Summer in the Countryside," "Kite Tea Party," and the board game "Forest Path," among others. She also fulfilled a childhood dream by creating "Who Has a Belly Button on Their Head? A Collection of Russian Brain-Teasing Riddles." For this book, she not only illustrated the folk riddles and handled the overall design but also handwrote the riddles and designed interactive mechanisms to hide the answers. The illustrations for this book were inspired by folk art, but she emphasizes conceptual absorption and re-creation rather than repeating traditional styles.

[Honors]
2021: Won the "Image of the Book" Award for illustrations in "Who Has a Belly Button on Their Head? A Collection of Russian Brain-Teasing Riddles."
2021: Received the Russian Publishers Association "Book of the Year" Certificate in the Children & Teenagers category.
2024: Received a non/fictio№ "Illustrator" Competition Certificate.
2024: Longlisted in the non/fictio№ "Illustrator" Competition ("Attack, Universe!").
2021: Won the International "Image of the Book" Award, Grand Prize in the "Author's Book" category for illustrations in "A Leaf, a Feather, Blue."
2025: Received a non/fictio№ "Illustrator" Competition Certificate, recognizing her unique practice of continuing the golden tradition of "Detskaya Literatura" (Children's Literature publishing house) in children's books ("A Leaf, a Feather, Blue").
2025: Finalist in the Children's Book Unit of the DAFES AWARDS ("A Leaf, a Feather, Blue").

【Co-author】Philip Surov – book and educational board-game designer, author, teacher, entrepreneur. Member of the Artists’ Union Book Division (Moscow). Graduated from the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, Studio of A. B. Konoplyov. Frequent participant in Russian and international book fairs.