Around the world with a book

“It is already the eighth Week of Children’s Book. The first Week was dedicated to the anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen, the second Week – to Ukrainian fairy tales, and the third – to world’s fairy tales… We’ve also had a week dedicated to all the creators of books: illustrators, writers, publishers, translators. This year’s festival is dedicated to the world’s literature published in Ukrainian, hence, the name – Around the World With a Book,” said Raisa Sennikova, deputy director for research and education work of the National Museum of Ukrainian Literature, one of the organizers of the event.

Each of the five days of the festival is dedicated to a particular European country, which is the center of all the organized events: meetings with translators, illustrators, school performances, workshops, and books readings. Today, for example, it is England, tomorrow and the next day will be “traveling to Russia and Germany.” Moreover, during the whole Week of Children’s Book there are three exhibitions held in parallel at the Museum of Literature: literary, art, and photo exhibitions. “From the Book Treasury” – is the name of the exhibition that features the books which were presented to the museum by translators. Visitors can find here both books recently published by leading publishing houses and books with “history.” “We did not have a goal of providing detailed information about the translations and their history. You can find it all in our permanent exposition. At the exhibition you will see the latest editions translated into Ukrainian as well as old books presented to the well-known translator and polyglot Mykola Lukash,” Sennikova told The Day. Photo exhibition “Happy Moments of Childhood” includes photos sent from all over Ukraine with happy children on them, and the art exhibition “I Draw Ukraine” includes paintings created by children from Ukrainian Diaspora abroad. “Of course, first you should know what is yours, native, and then you can improve those skills. However, by deepening our knowledge of Ukrainian things we can learn more about peoples and literatures of the world and in such way can learn how to live with others, understand their culture and literature,” Sennikova explained the main idea of this year’s Week of Children’s Book. In her opinion, such events may inspire a child to learn foreign languages and also to treat a paper book as a work of art that carries knowledge.