Nina Dashevskaya, an author of books for teenagers, from Moscow, Russia, visited our school last Saturday, the 15th of October. Nina is a triple winner of the teenage books competition “Kniguru”, where the best books are selected by the children themselves.
Nina has visited the UK to take part in the final awards ceremony for the “Kniguru in Britain” competition, which is the version of “Kniguru” adopted for our local children, where they can write a review of any of the books from the short list of Kniguru books for all seasons, starting from 2011.
The day after visiting our Cambridge Russian School she had a meeting with her readers in London, then a day trip to Edinburgh to meet children in the Dashkova Russian Centre, and then in London again, in Kings College. Together with Nina we were greeting Karina Karmenian from Russian Children’s World, who initiated Kniguru in Britain here in UK.
Nina is a wonderful story-teller, establishing a great rapport with her target group – teenagers. And we could see how our boys and girls were listening to her with great interest, asking her questions, taking an active part in the event.
Nina is not only a talented writer but also a talented musician, she pays the violin in the orchestra of the Children Music theatre in Moscow. She played us a bit and was very pleasantly surprised when, asking the question of the auditorium if any of us played a musical instrument, a lot of children said yes.
Nina could not believe that she is already in England, not in Moscow, that so many people around her spoke Russian.
After the talk it was possible to buy Nina Dashevskaya’s books and have them signed by the author.
We all wish Nina success in the future and can’t wait to read her new books!
