The fairy tale “Once upon a time…” is A. A. Milne’s first book for children. However, the writer doubted whether his book was for children or adults: of course, everything in it is fairy-tale - princesses, kings, dragons, magical transformations, but on the other hand, it is so firmly connected with real life, as if it was written about us, or about our friends... “There is only one way to write a children’s book - write it for yourself... No matter who it is read to, no matter what age the readers are, one of two things: either you will like it or you won’t,” said Alan Milne himself he wrote exactly this way: adult things - for the public, and children's things - for himself and, probably, about himself, because he remained a child at heart. Drawings by Alexey Shelmanov.