The book of the outstanding literary critic Miron Semenovich Petrovsky was composed of historical and literary novels about the fate of the classical works of Soviet children's literature. The story of the amazing circumstances that accompanied the birth of fairy tales by K. Chukovsky, V.V. Mayakovsky, S. Ya. Marshak, A.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Volkov, is built on extensive material, largely first extracted from archives. Illustrations from the first editions of books, archival photographs. The book will be interesting for both literary experts and just lovers of children's books.