Throughout her career, she made illustrations for some 200 children's books in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Russia, France, India and Japan.
She worked for several of the largest publishing houses in her native country, including Detskaya Literatura, Detgiz and Malysh.
She is particularly famous for her illustrations for classic Russian fairy tales, including Ruslan and Lyudmila and Silver Hoof.
From the late 1980s she watched, and was inspired by, the changes in everyday life happening in the transition from the Soviet Union to the new Russia.
This was, for example, reflected in her colourful images, often in red or orange, of the New Russian Women – as she called them – which she boldly depicted in scenes from every-day life.