Vsevolod Nestayko (30.01.1930)
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Vsevolod Nestayko (30.01.1930) is the classic Ukrainian children’s literature writer. Born on January, 30, 1930 in Berdychiv city (Zhytomyr region). In the evil 30s he lost his father and moved to Kyiv with his mother. In 1947 V. Nestayko entered Slavistics on the department of philology of the University of Kyiv. He has survived the hungry after-war years. V. Nestayko had worked in several magazines: “Dnipro”, “Barvinok”, etc. He had also worked in the “Molod’” publishing house and from 1956 to 1987 he was the editor-in-chief of the “Veselka” publishing house.
He started printing his first children’s stories in “Barvinok” and “Pioneriya” magazines. His first book “Shurka & Shurko” saw the light in 1956. His 50-year long way in the children’s literature has been witnessed by publishing circa 30 stories, fairy tales, novels and plays. The most famous among those are: “In the Land of Sundogs” (1959), «Satellite LIRA-3» (1960), «Cosmo-Nata» (1963), «Robinson Cucurusoe» (1964), «Toreadors from Vasyukivka» (1973), «The Fraud ”F”» (1976), «Unusual Adventures in the Forest School» (1981), «The Riddle of an Old Clown» (1982), «”A” With a Small Tail» (1985), «A Stranger Girl From the Land of Sundogs» (1988), «The Investigation Goes On», «A Mysterious Voice Behind» (1990), «Incredible Detectives» (1995) and other remarkable works.
The books by V. Nestayko have been translated into twenty languages throughout the world, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak etc.
Screen adaptations of Nestayko’s novels have been awarded internationally. The adaptation of «Toreadors from Vasyukivka» won Grand-prix at the International Festival in Munich (1968) and the main prize in Alexandria, Australia (1969). «The Fraud ”F”» adaptation was awarded at the All-Soviet-Union Film Festival in Kyiv (1984) and at the Gabrovo Film Festival, Bulgaria (1985), it won a special award.
Vsevolod Nestayko is a laureate of the Lesia Ukrayinka Literary Award (for the storytale “Unusual Adventures in the Forest School”), as well as of the Mykola Trublaini Award (for the storytale “A Stranger Girl From the Land of Sundogs”), the Oleksandr Kopylenko Award (for the tale “The Adventures of Kolko Koliuchka the Hedgehog and his True Friend and a Classmate Kosia Vukhan the Bunny”). He was awarded the second prize at the First All-Soviet-Union Best Children’s Book Contest for his novel in stories called ”A” With a Small Tail”. In 1979 the International Children’s and Youth’s Literature Council agreed to include the trilogy “Toreadors from Vasyukivka” into the Special Hans Christian Andersen Honor List as one of the most outstanding works of modern children’s literature.
