SUMMARY
Some of the most important books for children, published in 1999 are mentioned in the editorial „Books and Crowns“: „Charms of Bony Witch“ by Martynas Vainilaitis, which was elected as the best Lithuanian book of the year, „Top 5“ presented by a group of experts of the children’s literature etc.
Kęstutis Urba continues his article „The Variety of the Literary Fairy Tales“ (the first part of the article was published in „Rubinaitis“ Nr 13). The subtitle of the present part of the article is: „attempts to classify“. First, the author suggests the division of literary fairy tales into two groups according to its relations with folklore: folkloristic (those, in which folklore plots, motives, heroes etc. are widely used) and original (those, which are almost totaly based on the individual imagination of a writer). The second background for the classification is the combination with traditional literary genres: novel-fairy tale, poem-fairy tale, drama-fairy tale etc. The third and the main basis for classification of literary fairy tales (fantasies) is the general purpose, general idea of the Secondary World of a tale. Kęstutis Urba shortly describes three modes of the literary fairy tale: didactic, nonsensical, and philosophical (or poetical, or allegorical).
The garden is presented as a place of security, of secrets, of games, and forests, traditionally more frightening setting, but also sometimes idyllic place. The characters of its inhabitants often serve as examples of Goodness forreaders. These and other aspects of Children’s prose (mainly Polish) are described by Joanna Papuzinska in her article „Garden and Forest as chronotopes in Children’s Literature“.
Gražina Skabeikytė shortly presents the biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and analyses his „The Little Prince“. Adult hero (narrator) tries not to become „as all adults“, he begins to love the Child (the Little Prince), he discovers „shining secret“ in the Child, and only then he manages to repair the plane and return home. On the contrary, a figure of Little Prince is not childish: he is too clever, too reasonable, too philosophical, he is the Host of his Planet, so he is „as adult“ and reflects author’s attitudes towards Life. These and similar introspections are presented in the article by Skabeikyte. The article is devoted to the 100th anniversary of Saint-Exupery.
The 170th anniversary of Hector Malot inspired Ona Kaladiene to introduce shortly the author’s biography and vrorks. His novel „Sans Famille“ is still popular among the Lithuanian young readers. Similar presentation of John Newbery, his „A Little Pocket Book“ as well as other works, is prepared by Vita Mozūraitė for the traditional section „Introductions“.
Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė is the honorable guest at the section „B o o k s of My Childhood“. Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, spent many years in exile in America, and now is back to Lithuania. A writer, dramatist, actor remembers her childhood and books very vividly and tells many interestings episodes about it. „Literature and theatre, and everything, it seems, came from my childhood…“ – this is a quotation from the Elona Varnauskienė’s interview with Pūkelevičiūtė.
Four new books are reviewed in the section „At a Closer Look“, and some children’s letters regarding their reading and books are published in the „L e t t e r s“ section. The „B i b l i o g r a p h y“ section is devoted to the publications of 1999 discussing with Children’s Literature issues.
Žurnalas „Rubinaitis“, 2000 Nr. 2 (14)
