Last week, I shared an amazing vintage Soviet children’s book that I found in a used book store.

Today, I’m sharing the companion to that book that I bought at the same time. It was published later – in 1984 – by the same company in Moscow. It’s a great deal simpler than Early, Early in the Morning, with the illustrations being the focal point.

Each page show a mother animal and her offspring, and the text simply gives their names. “Sow and piglets” or “cow and calves,” for example. The animals pop from the page, and are depicted in an idyllic farm setting. My favorite detail is probably the very European haystacks on the cow page.

Compared with the previous book, these illustrations are sedate. There are no wild psychadelic colors, and no stereotypically Russian characters. Instead, there are soft tones and sweet details of plants, farm buildings, and extra critters. The paper engineering is confined to the animals, and nothing moves.

I’m still on the prowl to learn why these books exist, but I did read online that there were Soviet books published in English for audiences in India. I wonder if these were part of that? Don’t worry – the research continues.