Interview with Vassilis Papatheodorou

Which are the issues of great concern that mostly interest children and young people when reading books?

The differentiation between children and young people, as you said, is very crucial regarding the issues. Young children like stories with fun, extraordinary creatures, paranormal phenomena. They also like to see pictures and colors. The reason behind this is that children want to discover the world as a whole, they are very curious, they want to see and learn. Better said, it is not only a reason, it is a need. But as they grow up the trend is to discover other people (parents, classmates, friends, etc), while as teenagers their need is to discover themselves. Questions like "who am I?", "what am I gonna do?", "how can I approach this situation?", are their main concern. At the age of 12-14 information about relationships, friendships, family issues, about their sexuality, about their limits in general, is at the center of their attention. Of course every country has its own topics of interest but most topics, such as the before mentioned, are of global interest, they are universal. Another key element is that the older the children the lesser their need for illustrated books, because they don't have to visualize the heroes of the story, they prefer to shape them with their own imagination.

Which of your books have international impact, so as to be translated in different languages?

One thing that characterizes my books, in my opinion, is that I prefer to write somehow "universally". That means, the heroes don't have necessarily Greek names, they don't live necessarily in Greek towns or villages. Of course I don't have a future translation in mind, I simply feel more free if the information, the plot, the persons don't carry ethnical or regional boundaries. Therefore, I think most of my books could be translated in different languages. Books like Lords of the trash or The long journey of the Chinese ducks, an ecological dystopia for young adults and an ecological adventure for middle age kids respectively, are somehow influenced by readings form non-Greek authors or by movies. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, a Christmas book, refers to the most famous American editorial of all time. I try to speak an ecumenical language, including

topics such as ecology, friendship, bullying, love and forgiveness, happiness, etc. I also mention Flying pages, The pink flamingo's white strike and Karl, Fritz and the egg of happiness. The main idea for many of my books derives from a real event, which happened in a real place, sometime in the past, and from which I have been informed by an article in the newspaper or on the Internet. Real stories are often the best ones.

Some of your books have been translated in Turkish. Do you think there are common interests between children and young people in the two countries?

As I have already mentioned before, there are some topics, some universal issues that are of great interest among young readers worldwide. Of course, Turkish and Greek people have additional things in common. They share a part of history, they carry elements of a common background. Even several words are common in both countries. The geographical neighboring between Turkey and Greece, some common snapshots of history, also mean a similar way of life, similar reactions, similar emotions. I would say that both, Greek and Turkish children and young people, are somehow connected, they react the same way, they even dream the same way, they express themselves the same way; only in different languages. For sure I only speak of similarities between the two nations, I don't overlook the importance of many other factors, such as religion, history, customs, etc. But in my opinion and compared to other nations or combinations, Greeks and Turks have many things in common.

How would you describe your experience from meeting young readers in Greece and Turkey?

My experience in Istanbul was somehow a revelation for me. I must say that I only visited private schools, while in Greece...