Age 15+
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Katrīna Randela. Cello, Sofia and the roofs of Paris. Riga: Jānis Rozes apgāds, 2020.
When the ship sinks, a cello case and a little girl are found in the waters of the English Channel. Her savior is the eccentric scientist Charles Maxim, who gives her the name Sofia and takes her under his wing.
The girl grows up with the firm conviction that she will one day find her mother, who is definitely playing the cello and living in Paris. And one day they both sit on a train with Charles and go to Paris, but there ...
A breathtaking tale for children, written by one of the most outstanding British contemporary children's writers, Catherine Randel (1987). It was published in 2013 and is her most award-winning book, translated into many
languages and was also nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.
Translated from English by Māra Polakova
Artist Gita Treice
Andruss Kivirehks. Tilda and dust angel. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 2020.
Sometimes it happens that we forget. We forget something important. What to remember. Then the dust angels come to the rescue. They are small - just like dust, but they remember everything because the dust has always been and will never disappear. One such angel of dust arrives through Tilda's window ...
The book "Tilda and the Angel of Dust" by the popular Estonian writer Andrus Kivirehk is a touching and profound story about a child who has lost a father, about memory and fantasy, about human relationships, the modern technological world and the values we must strive to preserve. It is a book for the whole family, where everyone will find something close to them.
The book has an interesting history. First, the artist Takinada (Irina Šabarova) drew an unusual creature and portrayed it in a doll, which was presented to Andrus Kivirehk. In turn, he wrote a beautiful story about this doll - an angel of dust. The book received the Estonian Cultural Capital Foundation award as the best Estonian children's book in 2018.
Andrus Kivirehk's name is well known in Latvia, readers have loved his novels, stories and books for children, including exciting, witty works about the curious dog girl Loti and her friends from the Village of Inventors.
The well-known Estonian children's poet and writer Lēlo Tungala writes: "From the cover of Andrus Kivirehk's children's book" Angel of Tilda and the Dust "it may seem like a beautiful fairy tale, but in reality I think it is Kivirehk's deepest book with a subtext."
Translated from Estonian by Guntars Godins.
Jane Steinberg. Reader. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 2020.
The novel "Reader" presents a vision for the future with a new profession - the reader. In the work of science fiction, technology and the human fusion have merged into one - the capacity of the human brain has been enhanced by quantum computing, and this has repeatedly increased the possibilities of information processing.
Jane Steinberg described the sources of inspiration in the LTV program "Morning Panorama":
"I tried to predict what would happen if we tried to develop artificial intelligence not as artificial intelligence, but to combine it with human physiological, biological possibilities.
All this does not go in the direction we would like. At the same time, do we know now what we want to expect from the future of technology? ”
Jenny Hana. To all the boys I have loved. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 2020.
High school student Lara Gina no longer has a mother, but she has a great family: a father who makes every effort to keep her daughters short, a serious older sister, Margot, who is going to college, and a nine-year-old little sister, Kitty, for whom Lear Gene now feels responsible.
Lara Gin keeps her love letters in the hat box she once gave her, but they are not letters written by someone else. These are written by herself. One for each of the boys she once loved - a total of five. In the letters, the girl displays all her heart and soul and says many things that would never be revealed in real life, because they are only for herself. But one day the hat box disappears, the secret letters are sent to the addressees in an unknown way, and Lara Gina's love life no longer exists only in dreams - it becomes completely out of control ...
Translated from English by Krista Betija Samauska.
Lote Vilma Vītiņa. Girl. Riga: Neputns, 2020
The book contains poems written over several years. They are arranged in six chapters, each containing poems on a topic or meaning. "They are about the girl, the hands, the garden, the brother, the water, the tenderness, the crocodiles, the heat, etc. Together they form a narrative, in a sense a portrait of the girl," said the author of the collection.
Bart Mühart. Brothers. Riga: Petergailis, 2020.
Bart Mührht's book "Brothers" is partly autobiographical, allowing you to look into the author's family, which was the youngest of the seven brothers - the Eldest, the Quietest, the True, the Farthest, the Lover, the Fastest. The author has recorded his childhood observations in separate stories, in which, in addition to the brightest moments and delusions of childhood, Mūjarts has also captured his childhood feelings and thoughts, which are rare in such works.
The author's childhood memories, like a multicolored kaleidoscope, seamlessly manage to take readers into the paths of childhood memories. There is a constant presence in the stories of what the mother and father said - whether it be learning to eat slowly or discussing behavior at the table. In addition to vivid and accurate narratives of memories, the author does not try to count them or give pedagogical comments on one or another childhood situation - they are left to the readers for evaluation.
The protagonist of Bart Moorish is an "intricate sparrow" who, before going to bed, does not think of the "ordinary" children's thoughts of a hundred sheep, but of existential and very specific things: "I fell asleep, curled up under my blanket, with my eyes closed. I shook my head at what I already know. I knew that some grave burials didn't smell, and that there was something for the resurrected dead, but I didn't want to think about our father sucking blood or having ever died. I quickly think of something else. Did our father ever have a mosquito for something else, not for the blue packet of tobacco, I wanted to know quickly. ”