Ability to write about the past of your people in an interesting, exciting, and simple way (to impress readers in the range from 8 to 80, especially the youngest ones) is a true art. It is not empty rhetoric, because it is of no use in such things, it is rather painstaking effort of spirit and mind, outspoken imaginative conversation with invisible companion, who will actually read the lines you wrote. If such companion is a school student, teenager, who have always been and will always be especially sensitive to any fraud, insincerity, demagoguery, verbiage, the task becomes even more difficult.
The same is true about popular literature on history, whose target audience is children. Frankly speaking, there are still very few good books of this genre in Ukraine. However, there are the “first signs” that, perhaps, soon will foresee literary “spring” in this sphere. A prime example of that is the book of famous Ukrainian writer, critic, and public figure Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky From the Voice of Our Clio. Its sixth edition, updated and expanded, has been recently released by Kyiv publishing house “Yaroslaviv Val.”
Presentation of the book was held on April 9 in bookstore “Ye” well-known to Kyiv reading fans (including The Day’s readers). People that came to the event were unanimous in their opinion that this is what books for children about history of our country should be like. The author Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky admitted that this is his favorite creation, in fact, he wrote the book (before Ukraine’s Independence) for his younger son Sviatoslav in order to cultivate interest to the national historical knowledge. According to Slaboshpytsky, this book is “a textbook for those who are sick of history lessons in schools,” besides, it is the minimum that every child must know about the history of Ukraine.
Ihor HYRYCH, Ph.D. in History, shared his thoughts and impression with the audience after reading the book and noted that the biggest problem of Ukrainian people was that we received our history through the hands of not always friendly neighbors – the Poles, the Russians, who had their own vision of things. Besides, there were very few popular books on history available to the public (the exception is books by Mykola Arkas, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky), perhaps, due to the fact that we became aware of that we are a separate nation somewhat late. In the past decade the history of Ukraine was taught and written in a very specific way. Words of a school student: “Dad, our history classes are not interesting because Ukrainians always lose” suggests sad thoughts. However, Hyrych stressed that we have to understand – winners are not those, who defeated everyone on the battlefield, but those, who will come after us. That’s why the historian writes not about the past.
Volodymyr PANCHENKO, Doctor of Philology, Professor at the National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy, emphasized that the book From the Voice of Our Clio is special in the view of the problem that presently exists in Ukraine, namely, the gap between scientific knowledge and public awareness. Book of Slaboshpytsky helps to “heal” this gap. It is a book about Ukraine, which does not need “bromine” (referring to the statement made by Volodymyr Vynnychenko), about heroic and, at the same time, intellectual Ukraine, about literary man Ilarion and battle art of Zaporozhian Cossacks, about Yurii Kulchytsky’s coffee, Ostroh and Kyiv Mohyla Academies, about The Book of Veles and daughters of Yaroslav the Wise. Panchenko said that children know very little about intellectual Ukraine and this book fills in the gaps.
Thus, we can conclude that the updated edition of the book on Ukrainian history, written especially for children, is a book that creates “pantheon of Ukrainian heroes.” We wish the book a wide path to the hearts of young readers!
