Căruța-Căsuța

Abstract

A story meant to be discovered slowly, through an exercise in patience and curiosity.

It is the story of a peasant family traveling all the way from their village in Gorj to the great sea. And they do not travel in an ordinary way. They transform their ox cart into an unusual means of transport: a cart-house.

They set off across the plains, discover old Bucharest up close—with a must-see visit to the fair and a stay at an inn—and then, continuing eastward, begin to notice how the villages gradually change and become increasingly different.

Their adventure unfolds across the pages like a journey of discovery through a world deeply inspired by local heritage from the mid-19th century. At times surreal, always playful, this world opens up through large-scale illustrations richly detailed with elements of architecture, material and spiritual culture, animated by characters and animals that never seem to stand still on the page.

Diana Tivu is an illustrator and children’s book author passionate about heritage architecture, Romanian ethnographic culture, and visual stories as bright as a childhood summer day. The little peasants are the protagonists of an entire world imagined by the author in colors inspired by the traditional village of the past—a place where life moves at a gentler pace, the sky is always clear, and stories are filled with humor, innocence, and wonder.