Our Books Are Going to Africa! // Наши книжки едут в Африку!

One of our neighbors posted information on a local site about their involvement with a community outreach program in a village in Botswana, Africa. The local school with 400 students is in need of books for children grade 1 through 9. And even though, history and geography books were preferred, I offered to gift OUR BOOKS because I strongly believe that people in general and children in particular need fairy tales as much as they need academic knowledge because since early age, tales are our spiritual guide in life. So, for the children of Tsetsebjwe Village in Botswana, near Limpopo River and border with South Africa, I signed a few of our books. Anya, Chickenleg Hut, Vassily Vassilich and Superseal are going to Africa! I know that fairy tales written by Russian authors with deeply rooted tradition of storytelling, will be loved by children and perhaps adults in Africa - not less than tales of Africa were a part of our upbringing thanks to talented Russian children's writer Korney Chukovsky. If you are local and would like to donate children's books to this cause, leave me a message here or on my FB page AnyaStories, and I will pass your information on to the organizers.

Where you can order our books:

BARNES & NOBLE

THRIFT BOOKS

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

AMAZON AU

На местном сайте один из наших соседей поделился, что уже в течение 10 лет его семья участвует в общественной программе помощи школьникам из небольшой деревни в Ботсване. В школе учатся 400 детей всех возрастов, и они нуждаются в книгах, рассчитаных на 1-9 класс. И хотя первое предпочтение было книгам научного характера (исторические, географические и т.д.), я предложила подарить африканским школьникам наши с Андреем книги - потому что людям нужны не только наука и академические знания, людям еще необходимы сказки. И кто, если не мы?

Сказка - ложь, да в ней намек, 

Добрым молодцам урок!

(Александр Пушкин. Сказка о Золотом петушке, 1834)

Children's Books: How Babies Are Made // Не самая обычная книга для детей

Look what I found on my sunset walk yesterday (I wrote about the tradition of Little Free Library HERE)... Surprisingly, just recently I was thinking that there must be something written for children on this topic, but in all my years raising my own daughter and working with kids, I did not come across anything like it. Not that I was looking specifically - I honestly don't remember my daughter asking about it. But even if kids don't ask their parents, that does not mean that the questions don't pop in their minds, so there must me something, I thought... and look, there is! I loved that it's a vintage book (1968, revised in 1979). It smells musky - a sign that it was sitting in a dump garage or basement for years, since children who read it, are grown up by now. I loved the paper applique (or whatever you call this technique) and the ease with which the authors dealt with this not-so-easy topic. Even though, my daughter is not a little kid any more, I still collect children's books, and from time to time I buy something that I especially like - and it is such a wonderful addition to my little collection. What do you think? Did you have/read a book like this when you were a kid? Did you buy/read such books to your children? Do you think there should be more books on this subject? Do they help to develop a healthier attitude towards such topics as sex?