"Kathe
mera paramythi, kathe vradi kalinihta"
(Every Day a Tale, Every Night Goodnight)
Patakis, 2003 - 4th edition 2009. 84 pp.
Illustrator: Maro Alexandrou
Distinction:Shortlisted for the DIAVAZO magazine award, 2004
ISBN: 960-16-0905-9
Summary:
The seven days, the good little children of Mrs.
Week, decide to write seven fairytales for grownups
to read to children before bedtime. Each day chooses
a color of the rainbow and makes up its own fairytale.
The book contains seven colored stories, following the
sequence of the colors of the rainbow, but also of the
days of the week. Monday tells us why a red ball kept
crying; Tuesday tells us about an orange which was a late bloomer; Wednesday tells us about a little
bear that turned yellow; Thursday tells us about the
adventures of a green parrot; Friday tells us about
a magic, light blue lily; Saturday tells us about the
life of a doll in a dark blue dress; and Sunday tells us
about the complaint of the violet.
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Reviews:
"...Fantasies which come out from the colours
of the rainbow; full of pictures from the nature and
narrations from the world of traditions. Stories that
compose a book of high aesthetics, a work that is poetic
in its writing and enjoyable in its reading. We should
not forget that nowadays, when a great number of mostly
inartistic and 'improper' books for children is published,
the authoress' name can, in any way, assure us for the
outcome of the act of writing a book."
Yiannis S. Papadatos
DIAVAZO magazine, March 2004, p. 71.
"...Contemporary narration techniques such as
the use of parts of texts from foreign classic fairy
tales, Greek folklore songs, excerpts from contemporary
Greek poetry or the subversion of familiar fairy tales
are elements that enrich the text and prove the fertility
of its interaction as a whole. Classic storytellers'
heroes, such as Andersen, Perrault and Grimm Brothers'
heroes, talk with a number of different objects, the
trees or the flowers in the stories they act so as each
narration to be put forward through a succinct and playful
style. The third person narration, the realistic as
well as poetic descriptions and the lively and humourous
dialogues make stories evolve smoothly and efficiently.
Through all these fairy tales, the authoress presents
the importance of a number of internationally common
values and notions such as that of freedom, wisdom and
knowledge (i.e. 'The Green Parrot'). She also points
out the importance of human emotions and relationships
in contrast to the material riches and external appearance
('The Doll with the Dark Blue Dress'). Finally, she
refers to the problems of our contemporary society referring,
for example, to the issue of acceptance of whatever
differs from the world that surrounds us ('The Orange
that Was a Late Bloomer'). The authoress uses the
fairy tale salads, the technique of the esoteric dialogues
in her texts, the subversion of some classic fairy tales,
i.e. that of the Little Red Riding Hood and the Sleeping
Beauty and the subsequent subversion of the two gender
roles. Through her stories, she even subverts the animism
of playing that is a major characteristic of all classic
fairy tales. In this way, she offers to children rich
material that is full of imagination and prospect. The
vividness of the illustrations with the alternation
and composition of bright colours arouse children's
desire to read while they also cultivate their aestheticism."
Ada Katsiki-Givalou, Professor in the University of
Athens
DIAVAZO magazine, November 2004, p. 94 (nomination of
the book for the Diavazo Children's Literature Award
2004).
"...In Every Day a Tale, Every Night Goodnight storytelling elements such as verbal/traditional narrations and strategic references to the self, as seen in post-modern prose, are all used very uniquely. The author constructs a seemingly “simple” and traditional book of tales, but simultaneously adapts and overturns the stable values of the world of storytelling. The technique is quite reformist. Worth consideration is the rhythmical title by which the text refers to itself as a tale (...) The reader is invited to enjoy the story by using all of his senses. The text succeeds not only in triggering reflective thought from the coexistence of verbal and textual methods but further blends the traditional forms of narration with contemporary narrative styles."
Gina Kalogyrou
Associate Professor, University of Athens
Published in the volume To yfanto tis Pinelopis – Diachronikes anagnoseis gia tin prosopikotita kai to ergo tis Loty Petrovits-Andrutsopulou (Penelope’s Weaving -Diachronic Readings for Loty Petrovits-Andrutsopulou’s work and personality), p.125-138. Volos: University of Thessaly, Word and Culture Laboratory, 2008. |