Alexandra Litvina, Anna Desnitskaya. The story of an old apartment

Alexandra Litvina graduated from the Philology Department of Moscow State University and completed her postgraduate studies at the Institute of World Literature, then worked as an editor in various publishing houses. Together with Ekaterina Stepanenko, she wrote a children's guide for the State Historical Museum and several historical game books.

In 2015, the first joint work with the artist Anya Desnitskaya was published — the book "Metro on the Ground and Under the Ground". In 2017, the book "The History of an Old Apartment" was published — a book that opened a window to Europe for the Samokat publishing house. The rights to publish were bought in Germany, France, China and America.

INTERVIEW

It seems to me that every educational children's book is like a big funnel. For a few drops to pour out, a huge amount of material must flow in: thoughts, facts, feelings, emotions. And as in every book, it is not always possible to program everything. Some character suddenly demands attention, or some situation suddenly begins to unfold.

Pravmir.ru

There are many questions in The History of an Old Apartment, but we did not strive to explain all the phenomena, to describe all the motivations. There is an approach that I conventionally call the style of the pre-war magazine "Koster". Some writers have this, too, Gaidar, for example. He is a wonderful stylist, but he often comes up with something like this: "She walked down the street and thought about the most important thing." And he begins to explain what this is - the most important, the most correct. We did not want such a book. We wanted it to be read by a variety of parents, no matter what their views and family histories. It is clear that many of the events described in the book have their own meaning for each family. Each family will choose its own position - how to tell children about the revolution, how - about the war, what exactly to tell and why in general.

Papmambook

Anna Desnitskaya is a Moscow artist, illustrator, collagist. Graduate of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts.

Desnitskaya illustrated several children's books, including "Two Trams" by Osip Mandelstam, "Aliens Among the Egyptians" by Eduard Shenderovich, "What's What" by Vadim Frolov, and "Look, I'm Growing Up" by Boris Almazov (all published by Samokat) and "Metro on the Ground and Under the Ground" (published by Peshkom v istorii). Anna took part in competitions for designer toys and applied arts. She holds master classes on making dolls and dollhouses for adults and children.

A large and important project by Anya Desnitskaya is “The History of an Old Apartment,” created together with Alexandra Litvina. They showed the entire history of the 20th century through the eyes of children from a fictional communal apartment on Chistye Prudy.

In 2017, Anya Desnitskaya participated in the International Biennial of Illustrations in Bratislava (Bienále ilustrácií Bratislava) and won the Golden Apple (GOLDEN APPLE BIB) – one of the most important awards for illustrators from all over the world.

On the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019, "The Story of an Old Apartment" was included in a very selective and prestigious catalog of the 100 best modern illustrated books in the world, created by the Association of Publishers of Quality Illustrated Books DPICTUS. At the international competition "Art of the Book" of the CIS member states 2021 in the nomination "Art of Illustration", the 1st degree diploma was awarded to the book with illustrations by Anya - "Transsib. The Train is Departing!"

INTERVIEW

For Anya and me, the stories in “The Old Apartment” are very personal, although we almost never used our family stories directly. We want people to pick up our book and find something to talk about with their child while they are still interested and their mother remembers and knows. “Grandma was little, Grandpa was little, and everything was completely different.” Talking about the past is difficult, but it is not necessary to immediately talk about the revolution, the Great Terror, or the war. Of course, there were and are topics that parents do not talk about with their children not because they are politically inconvenient, but because they cannot talk about them without anger and bias, or even without internal pain, it is difficult and impossible for them.

History lessons

It was important for me that I could include characters from my family, family things in the book. I always feel sad about things that are passing. For example, we have an apartment where my grandmother lives now. Our family has lived in it since the house was built. And I feel sad that this apartment is not the same as it was in my childhood. And I could draw some pieces from there that are dear to me, or, for example, people, in the book.

Pravmir.ru

"It is wrong when a child is given the task of "draw an orange squirrel with a white belly in the center of a sheet of paper." In my opinion, it would be right if children first looked at photographs or paintings that depict a forest and squirrels, or remembered how they were in the forest in the summer and fed squirrels, or read a story about a squirrel. And then let everyone draw their own story about a squirrel and a forest - and someone will have a big squirrel with a white belly in the middle of the sheet, and someone will have a small gray one in the corner."

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