Ukrainian / Ukraine
Sapijensy
(Sapiyensy)
Arjenjev, Volodymyr
(Arenev, Volodymyr)
(text)
Kvitka, Lina
(illus.)
Charkiv: Vydavnyctvo Ranok, 2019. – 219 p.
ISBN 978-617-09-5776-4
Student | Future | Humans | Science fiction | Spaceship
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2020
Who’s human, who’s an avatar, who’s an alien? How does one fly a spaceship? What is it like to have parents who are researchers and work on Mars or in secret laboratories? Mishko Neborak and his new, mysterious friend with a metal heart Sashko Nenarok live in the year 2178. They are learning to navigate the “Shooting Sperling” at school and to complete operations in space. All the while, they keep encountering questions about how the world began and what makes a human a human. Spaceship commanders who turn out to be threatening avatars, incredibly old knowledge that is stored in a library, and clever kids – Volodymyr Arenev’s (b. 1978) sci-fi children’s novel offers not only splendid adventures and gripping existential questions. It is also full of allusions to great science fiction material. “Sapiyensy” was named Children’s Book of the Year in 2019 by BBC Ukraine. [KW]