Initially impressed by a need to deliver consolation and assist youngsters make sense out of the world “within the wake of 9/11, the tsunami within the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina, and the La Conchita mudslides,” author Janet Lucy and her staff on the nonprofit Seven Seas Press have lately turned their award-winning e book The Three Sunflowers right into a bilingual Ukrainian-English version devoted to the kids of Ukraine. They’re working in collaboration with the Stand with Ukraine Basis in Los Angeles, which presents international and native help, to assist get books straight into the arms of youngsters affected by the warfare.
After publishing the primary e book, a bilingual English-Spanish version that includes illustrations by Colleen McCarthy-Evans, greater than a decade in the past, Lucy mentioned that, “alongside the best way, what I found, and I didn’t know this on the time, however sunflowers are a global image of peace.”
The story of The Three Sunflowers revolves round a turbulent day in a backyard the place this trio of sunflowers — the tall, sensible Gloria; and the newer arrivals, Sunny and Solomiia (named for the daughter of translator Iryna Demchyshyna, who fled the warfare in Ukraine along with her then-4-year-old daughter in April 2022, and stayed with an American host household for 5 months) — be taught to face a collection of surprising and chaotic occasions that they don’t have any energy to cease.
“The entire concept of the e book is to show youngsters the best way to discover peace inside themselves, particularly throughout scary occasions. It’s instructing them the worth of resilience in tough instances,” mentioned Lucy.
“I couldn’t think about a extra well timed and related e book to create for Ukrainian youngsters,” mentioned Lucy. She outlined a serendipitous collection of occasions the place, as she turned conscious of the sunflowers’ significance and started discussions with McCarthy-Evans about discovering a Ukrainian translator, “a few month later, Colleen known as me and she or he mentioned, ‘You’re not gonna imagine this … my sister opened her residence [in Los Angeles] to a Ukrainian mom and daughter who fled the warfare. And Iryna — that’s her identify — is an expert translator.’”
“I teared up when Colleen and Janet requested me to translate the e book,” mentioned Demchyshyna in a press release. “It was my dream to translate once more, and sunflowers are the nationwide flower of Ukraine.”
She continued, “When Solomiia learn the e book, it made her really feel stronger and gave her hope. This e book reminds us that every part might be all proper. Don’t quit! Keep robust!”
The e book comes with a “Dialogue and Actions Information” to assist youngsters interact deeply with the story and discover the themes as they relate to their very own lives. “I like to incorporate dialogue guides, and so it was actually vital to me that for this one, I used to be ready to do this in a means that was delicate, related, and significant for the kids and Ukraine. So Iryna consulted on that — in addition to the entire e book, actually — for the relevance of the content material,” mentioned Lucy.
Prompts embody questions like, “How do the three sunflowers care for one another?” and “How do you and your family members care for one another?” to simply assist youngsters draw parallels to their very own lives and relate them to the story.
Impressed by Iryna and Solomiia’s story, and within the spirit of their mission, Seven Seas Press is launching a marketing campaign to ship copies of Три Соняшники/The Three Sunflowers to Ukrainian youngsters displaced by the warfare. Donations will go to funding books to distribute by way of organizations serving Ukrainian youngsters regionally and internationally.
To help this fundraiser, go to sevenseaspress.org/childrensbooksforukraine.
