The Polish Book Institute

A translation of Anna Skowrońska's children's book Wiatr (“Wind”), illustrated by Małgorzata Nowak and Agata Dudek, has been published in Germany. The publication of the translation by Marlena Breuer was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

The book, the title of which reads Luft in German, was published by the Beltz publishing house. The same publishing house has also published German translations of the other books in Skowrońska's series – Wasser ('Water'), Feuer ('Fire'), and Erde ('Earth').

"Wind" is one of a four-part series of books by Anna Skowronska that aim to show the youngest children the complex mechanisms that govern nature. In the pages of 'Wind', the author takes young readers on an extraordinary journey, during which they will be able to see, among other things, what state-of-the-art wind farms on the Scottish coast and ancient windmills in Iran look like. What is a simoom and what is a halny and how the wind is in fact formed - these are just some of the questions that will be easily answered by readers of Skowrońska's book.

Anna Skowrońska is not only an author of children's books, but also a publisher - she has been co-founder of Muchomor publishing house for over 20 years. In addition to the series, which includes Wiatr (“Wind”), Woda (“Water”), Ogień (“Fire”), and Ziemia (“Earth”), she has also written children's books such as Alfabet niepodległości (“The Alphabet of Independence"), Alfabet polski (“The Polish Alphabet"), and Święty Franciszek ("Saint Francis").

Małgorzata Nowak and Agata Dudek are two graduates of Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts who together run the Acapulco graphic studio. They specialise precisely in illustration and book design and have to their credit such titles as Anna Onichimowska's Tajemnica Malutkiej (“Little’s Secret”), and MISTRZ. Spotkanie z Witoldem Lutosławskim (”MASTER. The meeting with Witold Lutosławski”) by Anna Czerwińska-Rydel and Paweł Rydel.

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The ©Poland Translation Programme is one of the Book Institute's flagship programmes. Its aim is to promote Polish literature around the world by providing financial support for the publication of Polish books in translation into foreign languages. Foreign publishers may use the funding grant to finance part of the work's publication costs, including, among other things, the translation of the work from Polish into another language, the purchase of copyright licences, and the printing of the book. In 2023 alone, we have subsidised 229 foreign editions of Polish books to be published by publishing houses from 46 countries, to which we have allocated almost PLN 5 million. In all editions of the programme, we have already subsidised a total of more than 3,000 translations of Polish books into foreign languages.

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