This week I was delighted to receive a Polish translation of one of my stories. It was attached to a very nice email from Elżbieta Kalinowska of Wroclaw University asking to use my retelling of a West African myth in a book she’s working on. I promptly gave permission.

She has translated my story into Polish. She explains that in Poland the national curriculum includes teaching a foreign language — most often English — from the last year of kindergarten and then continuing with that language in school. I’m happy to contribute to that. There’s considerable research showing the benefits to the brain of being bilingual. (Sometimes I think that the bit of Spanish I learned in Mexico is all that’s keeping my own brain going.)

Dr. Kalinowska holds a PhD in pedagogy and has worked for 25 years as a university teacher. She says:

The book will have introduction about storytelling, then the Anansi story in Polish, and then 16 simplified stories in English with illustrations and some tips for teachers. 

Illustration by Donata Golenia

Her friend, graphic artist Donata Golenia, is making terrific illustrations.

A shorter version of “Anansi and the Box of Stories” was originally published in READ magazine (English).

—Pat

Click here for the English version: anansi_stories