A Library for Russian Children

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22507, 15 September 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

A Library for Russian Children

America for many years has led the world in children’s libraries. In many towns special houses are given over entirely to children’s books, with corners to hold picture books for the youngest ones, and rooms upstairs with travel books and almost grown-up stories for the older boys and girls. In New Zealand, too, in larger cities, the public libraries have special departments for children, with books to take home to read, and reference books if you want to do school project work in the library. But probably the most unusual junior library is in Kharkov in Russia, Kharkov is the capital city of, a large district in the south, the Ukraine, juit as Christchurch is the chief city of Canterbury. The library is just like a children’s club. Instead of ordinary wooden chairs there are comfortable arm chairs. There are also little tables where any members can play chess and Russian games similar to ludo and snakes and ladders. Not all the books in this library are Russian, because there are many German, Austrian, and Polish children living in the Ukraine, not to mention Tartars and Turks. As well as this even very young Russian children are encouraged to learn two or three languages'*- as

well as their own. English is the most popular “foreign language,” with German next, followed by French. Fairy-tales and legends are printed in all these languages. Sixty different languages and dialects are represented in the library. Like New Zealanders, young Russians ' have many pen-friends and send letters all over the world. Authors often come to the library and give talks on the stories they write. Very often someone in the audience will get up and criticise the author’s latest book; or another

(By D. M. Neal)

may explain why he liked a particular story. In this way a writer can learn just what readers like to find in books. Many grown-ups write for children without really knowing their tastes. That doesn’t happen in Russia very often, and when it does the author soon hears that he is on, the wrong track altogether. Perhaps you have read some of “M, Ilin’s” books, which have been translated into English. “Turning Night Into Day,” which tells the story of lighting from the days of torches to electricity, or “Black on White; The Story of Books.” “M. Ilin” (this is the penname used by I. A. Marshak) writes about very ordinary things like clocks which can be seen every day, and makes a most unusual book. And this Is probably because he has learned many little tricks about writing good books from the children who read and criticise them at the library in Kharkov. , When an author like Ilin visits the library his books become very popular. Most people like to read books by or about people they know or have seen. When Count von Luckner came to New Zealand every one wanted to read his life written by Lowell Thomas. In America to-day authors give lectures in large cities, in order that many copies of their books will be sold. r

Another way in which the Russian librarians make books popular is by giving puppet dramas in marionette theatres. “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Robinson Crusoe” will be acted, and the characters introduced to the audience in a little play. Most of the favourite stories of English children are . printed in Russian, just as England borrowed French fairy-tales like “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots.”

The best thing of all about the library is the workshop next door. Many people who do not enjoy sitting down reading a. story, will borrow a book from a library if it tells them how to do something or make something. The library at Kharkov makes special allowance for these people. If a boy becomes interested in a book on chemistry ■he may take it into a laboratory and find all the chemicals he wants with which to make his experiment; or, perhaps he finds a book on model aeroplanes: in the workshop will be all the wood and metal necessary. There is even a small theatre where plays can be read or acted. All boys and girls in Kharkov may use this library and workshop at any time, excepting school hours of course. Moreover,.books.are sent to hundreds of small Ukrainian towns. No matter where one lives one can use the library.