The best for the youngest

This year three Ukrainian publications were included into the international catalog of children’s literature White Ravens. The experts marked the philosophic story Who Makes the Snow? by Taras and Mariana Prokhasko, which was published by Staroho Leva Publishing House (see the interview with the authors in Route No. 1, issue 16, Christmas Miracle, and the article “Why the Red Hood became out of fashion,” issue No. 2, January 10-11, 2014), Forest Song by Lesia Ukrainka with illustrations by Polina Doroshenko (Osnovy Publishing House), as well as the book of poems From the Life of Intricate Words by Roman Skyba with illustrations by Tetiana Denysenko (Laurus Publishing House).

The international catalog White Ravens has been published annually since 1993 and contains the list of 250 best children’s books from over 40 countries of the world. The publication is assessed by the specialists of the International Youth Library in Munich. The criteria include the literary style, whether the topic is universal, the artistic decision, and design of the book. It is not the first time when Ukrainian publications are included in the list. In different years the books by the publishing houses A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA (Mitten with illustrations by Volodymyr Holozubov, Cossack Petro Mamalyha illustrated by Kost Lavro, Snow Queen and Fairytales of the Fog Albion with illustration of unmatched Vladyslav Yerko, Doggy and his Moon Friends with Serhii Savchenko’s illustrations), Hrani-T (book of Vasyl Holoborodko’s poems A Mitten full of Poems with illustrations by Inga Levi and Eight days from the life of a chipmunk by Ivan Andrusiak with illustrations by Hanna Sadko), Navchalna knyha Bohdan (Mitten and The Giant Turnip with original design by creative studio Agrafka), as well as Staroho Leva Publishing House (Fairytale about the Old   Lion by Mariana Savka) have been present in the catalog.

Ukrainian writer Roman Skyba in his book From the Life of Intricate Words in a witty and playful way reveals for little readers the phenomena of homonymy and paronymy. The publication includes 13 tiny poems where various images are played up. The publication is of a small-seize format: even the youngest can leaf the book. “Frankly speaking, I found out about the White Ravens catalog only after my book was included in it,” Roman Skyba told The Day. “This event was a very pleasant and at the same time very well-timed event for me. As for the idea of the book I can say this is the very case when temporary focus on one creative idea helps one to write. The homonymic play on words in my children’s poems is not rare, but it is a very venturesome thing to publish a book based on this. On the whole, children’s book publishing in Ukraine is more developed than the rest of genre segments. As a rule it envisages greater print runs and higher honoraria for the authors respectively. Children’s literature is in a higher demand, hence there are reasons for it to have a greater choice. Traditionally, commerciality has a negative side: it happens that the readers in their demand, like publishers and authors in their offers, are not very exacting. I have always written both for children and for adults. Simply on certain stages some genres are more appealing to me than the rest. Creative self-realization is a changeable process. In my opinion, the most important thing is not about taking care of what can be interesting for the reader, but about being maximum fond of what you create – then the rest will like it.”