Bonnier to release Denysenko's children's book in support of Ukraine

Bonnier Books UK is to release Maya and Her Friends by Ukrainian author Larysa Denysenko and illustrator Masha Foya, in support of the children of Ukraine.

It will be published simultaneously with Bonnier Books UK’s sister companies in Sweden, Finland and Poland, and all the publisher’s profits from the sale will be donated to Unicef. 

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.

Denysenko is a well-known writer, lawyer, human rights activist and journalist in Ukraine. She is also a member of Ukrainian PEN and is serving as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to increase tolerance in the country. The book was written to highlight how 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.

“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," Denysenko said. "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.”