These rather extraordinary illustrations are from a peculiar book called The Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Valya by Yan Larry (Hutchinson, London: [1945]) which was originally written in Russian and appears to be something of a cross between Alice in Wonderland and The Water Babies with an creepy-crawly theme. Brother and sister Kriak and Valya can't resist drinking a 'potion' they find in the Professor's house, and as a result they are shrunk to tiny and spend the rest of the book having adventures with dragonflies, spiders and other various bugs.
There are black and white illustrations in the text as well but unusually for me, it is the colour ones that appeal more in this instance. The book is somewhat scarce, particularly in its jacket and as a translation from the Russian is something of an oddity among children's books.
