The expert jury of the “Espreso. Readers’ Choice 2020” book award has begun its work. The jury of the Prize in the category “Literature for Children” included 12 experts, among them: literary experts, university teachers, critics, journalists and other representatives of the industry. All experts are independent and do not represent the interests of any publishing house.
Anastasia Muzychenko – expert of Prostor Ukrainian children’s book BaraBooka
Natalia Bohdanets-Biloskalenko – Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Head of the Department of Teaching Languages of National Minorities at the Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, professor at Izmail State Humanitarian University, researcher of children’s literature, author of textbooks on literary reading for younger schoolchildren
Natalia Marchenko – leading specialist of the National Library of Ukraine for Children, head of the “Klyuch” portal
Diana Melnikova – writer, teacher of Ukrainian language and literature at Novopechersk School in Kyiv
Julia Dzhugastryanska – literary critic, candidate of sciences
Larisa Lugova – Director of the Lviv Regional Library for Children
Maria Artemenko – expert of BaraBooka Ukrainian children’s book space, methodologist of the National Center “Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, children’s author
Oksana Davydova – children’s writer, from 2008 to 2019 – editor-in-chief of the children’s magazine “Invent, Think, Play”
Olga Punina – candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the Department of Theory and History of Ukrainian and World Literature of Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University
Ihor Stepurin – member of the board of the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors, member of the Ukrainian Library Association
Natalia Zimina – head of the subscription sector of the department of services for preschool and younger children of the National Library of Ukraine for Children
Mira Kyivska – literary critic, editor-in-chief of the Bukmol website
At the second stage, each expert will process the Long List in the category “Literature for Children” from 35 books submitted to the competition by 14 publishing houses and choose their favorites. After voting, 3 finalists will be determined in three nominations, which will go to the third stage.
Book prize “Espreso. “Readers’ Choice” was founded by the “Espreso” TV channel in 2017 and is supported by the NGO “Demforum” in order to celebrate the best domestic literary novelties of the year and to support interest in reading books in Ukraine. We strive for publishers to find an effective way to reach readers through recommendations, reviews and evaluation of books by readers and authoritative experts. The peculiarity of our Award is that its winners are determined by readers at the last stage by voting in libraries throughout Ukraine.
The winners of the Prize will be announced at the end of November 2020 on the air of the “Espreso” TV channel, on the “Espreso.TV” and NGO “Demforum” websites.
