3 Oct 2026
A year after Vitalii's first adventure, magic is loose again and Bath is about to get weird...
Last year, The Friends of Oleksandriya released our first children’s book: Vitalii Petrenko and the Secret of the Roman Baths. This magical, must-read adventure tells the story of talented footballer Vitalii Petrenko and his history-loving friend Edward Austen who accidentally dropped magic coins into the Roman Baths, awakening a Ukrainian three-headed dragon Zmiy Horynych.
Now, after months of hard work, on the 1st November, we are proud to release the second instalment in the series: Vitalii Petrenko and the Guardians of the Sacred Jewels.
Vitalii Petrenko, who fled the war in Ukraine with his mum and sister Nadia thinks that being targeted by a magpie during a football match is just bad luck - until flocks of black-and-white birds start swooping over Bath. Vitalii and his best friend Ed have seen strange things before, and this definitely smells like magic.
Their suspicions explode into reality when Nadia breaks Vitalii’s new snow globe and two birdlike girls tumble out. Alkonost and Sirin are ancient guardians from Ukraine, searching for the priceless jewels they once protected. Helping them would be easier if Vitalii and Nadia weren’t suddenly growing wings… and if the magpies weren’t acting like spies.
This book would not have been possible without a whole team of dedicated people: Claire Bramwell-Pearson authored both Vitalii Petrenko books; Kate Davies illustrated the front and back cover; Alexandra Dikaia illustrated the inside of the book; Dariia Manzhosova worked on the layout of the book; Zhenya Shkil worked as development editor; and Infoprint printed the books for us.
The book will be releasing on the 1st of November at ‘Ukraine: Within and Beyond’ from 15:00 – 17:00 at Wiltshire Music Centre where limited edition signed copies will be available to purchase for £11.99.
The Official Book Launch with the whole publishing team will take place on Tuesday 8th December at 6PM at BRLSI.
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