Bonnier Books UK will publish Maya and Her Friends by Ukrainian author Larysa Denysenko, with Ukrainian illustrator Masha Foya, in support of the children of the Ukraine.
“Brave and beautifully empathetic,” Maya and Her Friends will be published simultaneously with Bonnier Books UK’s sister companies in Sweden, Finland and Poland. All of Bonnier Books UK’s profits from the sale of the book will be donated directly to charities helping to protect the children of Ukraine.
First published in Ukraine in 2017, Maya and Her Friends tells the story of nine-year-old Maya and her 16 classmates, all with different backgrounds and upbringings. It is the story of ordinary Ukrainian children and their families, and lives lived in the shadow of the constant threat of war following the occupation of Crimea in 2014.
Larysa Denysenko is a well-known writer, lawyer, human rights activist, and TV and radio journalist in Ukraine. She is also a member of the Ukrainian PEN* and is serving as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to increase tolerance in Ukraine.
Maya and Her Friends was written to highlight the fact that children should be allowed to live in safety and love, no matter how many parents they have, whether they may be orphans, have been separated from their parents by war or migration, or have had to flee their homes.
In February 2022, Larysa Denysenko wrote: “I wrote this book about different children from different Ukrainian families in 2017, when Russia had conquered Crimea and temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. I write these forewords in the bathroom of my Kiev home in the roar of a Russian assailant’s fire. I can imagine that one of Maja’s classmates is now praying in a bomb shelter, another is writing a letter to his imprisoned father in Russia, and a third has already lost a loved one. It is less likely that one of the boys or girls will start their life in Helsinki. War is always against children. With this text, I want to shout to the world that the children of my country need international protection.”
Perminder Mann, CEO of Bonnier Books UK, said:
A cry for compassion, Maya and Her Friends is an urgent call to protect the children and families caught up in this terrible, unjustifiable war.
Like so many around the world, we’ve been following the devastating events unfolding in Ukraine with horror and heartbreak. As publishers, bringing this brave and beautifully empathetic book to readers in aid of charity is one of the small ways in which we can help, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the support of our partners who have donated their services and materials for free to ensure maximum profit for charity.”
Bonnier Books, together with its colleagues across Europe, is also donating €165,000 to The Red Cross and UNHCR to help provide all-important aid to the Ukrainian people. The sum includes donations from nearly 700 colleagues of more than €65,000 within the last week.
Maya and Her Friends will publish on the Studio Press imprint on 12th April 2022 in hardback and e-book and is available to pre-order here.
