43
Author’s book based on Greek folktales
POLAND
Although Anthony Manna isn’t Greek, he has spent the past 10 years writing children’s books about the European nation’s folktales.
“We don’t have the folktales here like they do there,” said Manna, who lives in Poland.
Manna’s latest book, “The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece,” which he co-wrote with Greece native Soula Mitakidou, was released Tuesday by a division of Random House publishing.
Manna, who is a retired Kent State University professor, said his interest in Greece began when he traveled to the country in the 1990s to research children’s literacy and teach at a university there.
“I knew the Greek myths — we all do — but not the folktales,” he said.
In 2002, Manna and Mitakidou wrote “Folktales from Greece: A Treasury of Delights,” a collection of 20 stories. Manna said writing for children is more difficult than it may seem.
“There’s a fine line between making it appealing and avoiding being condescending,” he said.
Translating and adapting folktales, which begin in the oral tradition, also can be time consuming. “The Orphan” is 32 pages and took five years from research to publication.
But Manna said the time spent on folktales is well worth the effort.
“Folklore teaches us about universal themes: survival, love, family and resistance,” he said.
Folklore from all cultures is prime material for children’s literature, said Josephine Nolfi, manager of Children’s Services at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.
“They are fundamentally good stories, fast moving and fairly short,” Nolfi said. “They almost always end happily. They have qualities in them that are appealing to children: Good is rewarded; wishes come true; evil is punished.”
As an oral tradition, folklore began as a way for people to explain themselves and the world around them, she said.
“Then you have the written work ... and the age of scientific enlightenment, and those stories are regulated to children,” Nolfi said.
She also praised books such as Manna’s that expose children to other cultures.
“There’s no better way to understand ourselves and others than to share experiences through story,” she said.
Manna said he hopes children who read “The Orphan” learn “to understand the idea of tradition in our fast-paced, digital world.”
After “The Orphan,” Manna thought he had completed his last Greek folklore children’s book for a while — but then he stumbled on a 1966 English book of Greek folktales, some of which he had never heard of.
“It’s a new project, a book found right here [at the Poland Library],” he said. “We’ll start the process again.”