British children to write reviews of Russian books

The Russian Children's World organization and the Kniguru All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children announced the Kniguru in Britain competition at the London Book Fair on April 14.

According to Russian Children's World director Karina Karmenyan, the contest's aim is to attract new young readers to contemporary literature in Russian and promote this literature in the English-speaking world.

Participants should be teens and young adults (from 10 to 21 years) living in the UK who are learning Russian or who are native Russian speakers.

“We hope that the contest will encourage the new translations of the books for kids and youth into European languages to appear,” said Karmenyan.

"It's an interesting competition because it encourages children to actively reflect on what they read and share their views with their friends. It is through projects like this that we can get children passionate about reading and writing, and hopefully create the next generation of authors,” said George Butchard, one of the judges.

The application deadline for the competition is Sept. 30, and the winner will be announced at the end of October.

To apply you should:

• be 10-21 years old (before Sept. 30, 2016);
• fill out the registration form;
• read at least one story by the finalists of the Kniguru All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children;
• write a book review in English or Russian.

Entrants can submit an unlimited number of reviews, which can be submitted in a free form. But the contest organizers advise participants not simply to retell the story, but to share their thoughts and feelings after reading the book.

Press photoLaunch of the competition at the Waterstones Piccadilly Russian bookshop.

Press photoKarina Karmenyan (center) and the jury members.

Press photoGeorge Butchard, editor for Russia Beyond The Headlines.

 

1/3

 

As a recommendation, an applicant could answer the following questions in 300-1,000 words:

• What impressed you the most?
• Which scene or character did you like the best?
• Did you compare yourself with the characters in the book and how was this useful for you?
• How would you tell your friends about the book to make them interested in it?
• Did you come across any things, names or titles that might be not clear for people who don't speak Russian? How would you explain it to them?
• Which movie, animation film, work of art or other book did the book remind you of?
• Would the book make a good film? What would you change in the book?

Authors of the most interesting reviews and most active readers will get prizes. There is also a special nomination for reviews written in Russian.

Among the bilingual judges are:

George Butchard, editor for Russia Beyond The Headlines,
Tatiana Linaker, Deputy Team Leader for Less Commonly Taught Languages at Kings College
James Rann, Faculty Member, Modern and Medieval Languages at University of Oxford, translator
Ignaty Dyakov, member of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and author of Russian textbooks for foreigners,
Ursula Woolley, a cultural relations specialist and former director of Pushkin House,
Ilya Goncharov, editor of Angliya newspaper.

Journalist Alexander Smotrov will be a chairman of the jury.

Find more information at the official website russianchildrensworld.com.

Russia Beyond The Headlines is media partner of the competition.

Reading Russia at the London Book Fair

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.