Michael Sampson and Olena Kharchenko will be reading from their book, Story of Ukraine: an Anthem of Glory and Freedom, at the Ukrainian Action Ireland Community Centre in Rathmines on Sunday, July 21 at 12pm.
The book aims to help people around the world learn more Ukraine. It walks readers through each line of the Ukrainian national anthem, the lyrics of which carry deep meaning for many Ukrainians, “full of passion, strength and determination”.
Mr Sampson is a well-known children’s book author and Professor at St John’s University in New York, while his wife Olena, from Dnipro in Ukraine, is a graduate of Oles Honchar Dnipro National University.
Olga Khoroshevska, manager at the community centre, is delighted this event is taking place in Dublin this weekend.
“For us, it’s important for kids to keep their language, and books help because reading helps to keep the language alive,” she told the Irish Independent.
“We have a pretty big library of Ukrainian books for kids and adults in our community centre.
“It’s great because both books are in English and Ukrainian, so they can share this book with their classmates or discuss it at school. It would be useful for both Ukrainian kids and Irish kids as well.”
The centre was created in 2022 as a place for Ukrainians fleeing the war to make friends, talk to each other, get to know more information about Ireland and Dublin, study English, and do other activities.
“There was a Go Fund Me for Ukrainian books for kids set up back when the war started,” Olga added. “So Ukrainian books have been coming to Ireland since February 2022.
“This weekend we’re going to talk with kids about books, about climate change, ecology, Ukraine, and do some arts and crafts. We will be doing some Ukrainian traditional crafts and then some eco-friendly arts and crafts.
“We’re going to use lids from bottles to create different funny creatures because the books talk about how it’s important to separate garbage to recycle because it all influences climate and the planet we’re living on.”
Every Ukrainian family attending on Sunday will each receive a gift of a signed copy of the book.
