The main prize of the National Children's Literature Award remains for the second year

literature prize

Yesterday, at Moscow school #235, the winners of the National Children's Literary Award "Treasured Dream" were announced. The award had 14 winners, but none of them received the main prize - 500 thousand rubles. This amount will be retained until next year, so the 2008 laureate, if there is one, will receive 1 million rubles. LIZA NOVIKOVA comments.

The founder of the award is the Cherished Dream charity foundation, created by the MIAN group of companies. This year's jury included Marina Moskvina (chairman), Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Olga Gromova, Yuri Entin, as well as schoolchildren Natalya Uspenskaya, Mikhail Buturlov and Sergei Khomutinnikov. Starting this year, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications will also become a co-founder of the award. Last year's Grand Prix went to Fred Adra for his novel Ulysses the Fox.

The finalists for the Cherished Dream Award, 36 in total, had to complete an impossible mission. Their texts had to take into account our rich tradition of children's literature, from Pushkin and Ershov, Kharms and Chukovsky to Zakhoder and Moritz. But at the same time, children had to be tactfully told some things that the classics forgot to say, but without which life in today’s country called the Russian Federation is unthinkable. If children's writers have any problems, "adult" politicians will definitely help them: for example, it became known that immediately before the "Cherished Dream" ceremony, a meeting of children's authors and illustrators with Dmitry Medvedev took place.

The current writing team of The Cherished Dream was extremely heterogeneous. Among the finalists one could meet both newcomers who had not yet appeared even on the Internet, as well as professional “children”. For example, in the “Small Prize” category (50 thousand rubles each) there were as many as six winners. Here, the Chelyabinsk author, hiding behind the pseudonym Tvark Man, and Valery Voskoboynikov, chairman of the children's literature section of the St. Petersburg Writers' Union, met as equals. Among the winners are also Andrey Maksimov (Moscow), Marina Sochinskaya (Moscow), Rina Elf (Leningrad region), Tamara Mikheeva (Chelyabinsk region).

Some finalists were presented with individual texts, while others could nominate entire book series of their own compositions for the award. In recent years, book publishers have produced many works for teenagers. Basically, these are texts of the same type, designed for the average young reader. Among the winners was the presenter of the series of “nightmares and horror stories” at the Eksmo publishing house, Eduard Verkin from Vorkuta. His novel “The Place of Dreams,” a horror story about dangerous computer games, received an award for best fantasy (100 thousand rubles). This was the largest of the additional bonuses, the rest amounted to 50 thousand rubles. The funniest work was named the collection of Svetlana Lavrova from Yekaterinburg “Cat Until Tuesday”. For the best work about the modern life of children, Tatyana Sergeeva (St. Petersburg) was awarded with the story “Floor Exercises”. The best debutant was the author of “Velka’s Childhood,” Muscovite Alexey Oleinikov. Stanislav Vostokov (Moscow region), the successor of the literary traditions of Gerald Durrell (Moscow region), was awarded for a work about wildlife; his books “Moscow Zoo” and “The Island Dressed in Jersey, or the Prosimian Specialist” have already been published by the Vremya publishing house. The “Big Prize” had three laureates, but none of them received the main 500 thousand rubles. Third place went to Leonid Saxon (Chelyabinsk) for his novel “Axel and Kree in the Otherworldly Castle.” Second place was shared by two authors, both debutants. One could have guessed that Ilya Borovikov’s novel “Citizens of the Sun” would definitely be among the winners: the book has already been published by the prestigious Vagrius. Moreover, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Harry Potter” are named among the writer’s predecessors. The plot about the girl Mishata, raised by snowmen and trying, together with the school director Dodyrov, to save the capital from time traders, is reminiscent of the completely outdated fairy tales of Veniamin Kaverin. They say that this novel with utopian elements was originally called “City of the Sun,” but in order to somewhat reduce the philosophical load of the story, the publishers changed the title. The children's jury liked Dina Sabitova's story "Circus in a Box" more. But the schoolchildren did not want to give first place to “Citizens of the Sun,” which was highly appreciated by the adult jury.

The "cherished dream" did not come true