SUMMARY

One of the important topics of this issue is translations of Estonian children’s literature into Lithuanian. This is related to the fact that the Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators declared 2024 as the Year of Estonian Literature. Several publications are devoted to this topic: Agnė Bernotaitė’s review article “Translations of Estonian Children’s Literature in Lithuania: News, Trends, Expectations, and Exchanges”, the same author reviews Triinu Laan’s book “John the Skeleton”. In the rubric “Let’s Read, Mom and Dad!”, translations of fairy tales written by two modern Estonian authors Andrus Kivirähk and Kairi Look, translated by Viltarė Urbaitė and Agnė Bernotaitė, are published. The information about the commemoration of the Estonian literary classic Oskar Luts in Tartu – a monument built for the 100th anniversary of his birth (the sculptor Aulin Rim and architect Allan Murdmaa) and the writer’s memorial house-museum – is presented on the back cover of the magazine. Nijolė Vaičiulėnaitė-Kašelionienė’s article about the French writer Daniel Pennac (dedicated to the writer’s 80th birthday) is published in the rubric “The Anniversaries”. Dalia Karatajienė in her article writes about the history of Alan Alexander Milne’s books about Winnie the Pooh. Another important and relevant topic today is war in children’s literature. On this topic, the interview of the board members of the Lithuanian section of IBBY conducted by Goda Baranauskaitė-Dangovienė is published. The interview was attended by Audronė Macijauskienė, Džiuljeta Maskuliūnienė, Urtė Šulskienė and Virgis Šidlauskas. Asta Plechavičiūtė reviews the book Mergaitė su šautuvu (Girl with a Shotgun) by Marius Marcinkevičius and Lina Itagaki, for which the authors were honoured with Pranas Mašiotas Prize as the best Lithuanian children’s literature book of 2023. Džiuljeta Maskuliūnienė’s interview with writer Ilona Ežerinytė (the rubric “The Readings of My Childhood”) and Lina Bimbirytė’s interview with schoolgirl Elzė Cibulskytė (the rubric “I Read a Lot”) are published in the magazine. Gitana Pumerytė-Vosylienė’s article “One Family – Four Generations of Readers” is published in the rubric “We are Sharing our Experience”. In the rubric “Retro”, Jolanta Gudeikytė tells about the first Children’s Book Festival in Lithuania which was held in 1978, in Raseiniai district. On that occasion, original souvenir scarves were made, decorated with the names of creators of Lithuanian children’s literature, images of characters. In the rubric “Photos Tell”, Daiva Irena Šarkanauskaitė writes about the classic book by the writer Vytautas Petkevičius Gilės nuotykiai Ydų šalyje (Acorn’s Adventures in the Land of Vices), which turns 60 years old this year. Kristina Vaisvalavičienė’s text “The Balts Literature Week Invites you to Travel” about the international project of Lithuanian and Latvian school libraries, which has been ongoing since 2017, encouraging to get to know children’s literature of neighbouring countries is also published in this rubric. In addition to the ones mentioned, two more reviews are published in the review rubric “With a Close Glance”: by Antanas Šimkus about the new collection of translations of Latvian children’s poetry Tirpsta diena kaip ledai. Latvių poetai vaikams (The Day Melts Like Ice Cream. Latvian Poets for Children) and by Danguolė Šakavičiūtė about the book Žalieji medeliai (Green Trees), which is an anthology of translations compiled on the basis of a Yiddish language for children’s magazine published in Vilnius, stored in the Judaica collection of Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The issue ends with the calendar of children’s literature dates of 2025, compiled by Roma Kišūnaitė and the traditional rubric “Chronicle. Information. Advertisements”, and starts with the text by Džiuljeta Maskuliūnienė, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, about the Epaveldas. lt portal. This is the largest digitized cultural heritage portal in Lithuania, where memory institutions open their repository doors and invite you to take a look and familiarize with the rich collections of digitized documents. A lot of material on this portal is devoted to children’s literature. Often these unique objects are in poor physical condition, so they are kept under strict conditions and are not accessible to the public. Epaveldas.lt portal provides an opportunity to use such sources.

Žurnalas „Rubinaitis“, 2024 Nr. 3 (111)