Vivat Publishing managed to release 350 books last year despite the war
have loved reading about the adventures of Detective Gerard, a pudgy guinea pig who solves mysteries such as “who ate the cat’s breakfast?” with his animal friends. But in the latest instalment of the storybooks, the furry sleuth takes on a far more menacing challenge: how to beat the Russian army.
Seven-year-old Vlada Boiko and her mother Olena Rybka fled Kharkiv to Warsaw after the Russian invasion started last February. Ms. Rybka is deputy chief editor of Ukraine’s Vivat Publishing.The publisher, which is based in Kharkiv, had to shut down immediately after the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022. Many of the roughly 100 staff fled to cities across Europe. Orlova and Olena Rybka, the deputy chief editor, went to Warsaw, Poland.
“When we opened our book store in Kyiv we had about 2,000 visitors in one day,” she said. “Because for people in Kyiv, to open a bookstore – it was a victory. It was very important.” The makeshift formula seems to be working. Orlova said that last year Vivat sold two million books even though the cover price – between US$10 and US$15 – can be expensive for many Ukrainians. The rights to many texts have also been sold in 30 countries.
Children’s books have a special place at Vivat. Rybka said the company takes pains not to hide the reality of the war from young readers, but not to traumatize them either. She works with a child psychologist to ensure that the books strike the right balance. “We know that our children feel stress and we don’t want our books to add to their stress,” she said. “But also these books represent the Ukrainian experience for children.
In an opening note to her “brave readers,” Yehorushkina writes that she got the idea for the book when her eight-year-old daughter began asking questions after missiles started falling near their house.
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