I first heard about big-headed weirdos with strange names Tattoo and Patu in 2006: friends secretly admitted that they could no longer see these books, because children simply adore them and can re-read them endlessly! The modest circulation of the translated edition quickly dried up, and then the same parents for many years eagerly hunted for the occasional remnants of Tatu and Patu. In the original language - Finnish - 20 books about these heroes have already been published. The fact that Tatu and Patu are dearly loved is evidenced by prestigious book awards, impressive circulations (about 100,000 copies.), numerous performances, as well as a full-length New Year's film adaptation with the intriguing title “Cinnamon Armpits” with hot Finnish guys in the lead roles. It all started with a guide to Helsinki - the capital of Finland and the hometown of the co-authors, the married couple Sami Toivonen and Aino Havukainen. Later, their guide was published throughout Finland, as well as a whole series of books about Tattoo and Patu, translated into many languages.
Until recently, Russian-speaking readers knew only five stories: “Tatu and Patu go to work,” “Inventors,” “Instructions for falling asleep,” “In kindergarten” and “Superheroes.” I recently discovered the return of this book series in Russian, and my happiness knew no bounds - after all, I had given away all of mine long ago. In addition, one of the most recent stories about brothers has been added to the already known ones - New Year's.
Who would have thought back in 2006 that these “almost comics” would become almost the first board book for my three-year-old?!
Long before the birth of my son, I carefully collected a home children's library - rather for my own “inner child”. And although our house is literally littered with children's books for every taste, Leva remained indifferent to them for quite a long time. The exception was sometimes books with “windows,” which he enthusiastically tore off.
In this regard, I had to make several not the most pleasant discoveries related to bedtime reading, which was so beloved in my own childhood. Firstly, it turned out that I prefer to read for my own pleasure and I feel sorry for giving my books to a child to be torn to pieces. Secondly, it turned out that I don’t like reading out loud at all. More precisely, I don’t have the patience to do this in parallel with children’s attempts to quickly turn the pages.
But I didn’t lose hope! And picture books have become a real lifesaver for us.
Eric Carle’s famous “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” was only attempted until closer to three years, despite my sophisticated attempts with finger paints and home performances. True, a significant role in this was played by the cartoon and game application on the phone about the hungry caterpillar, which really helped us out on long trips. Although books in general are having a hard time now with the abundance of toys, cartoons and the widespread children's entertainment industry in recent years, it was these additional products that helped us arrive at the book itself.
The culture of comics has finally taken root in Russia: in just a few years, the shackles of negative ideological connotations have been lifted from them, a new wave of Hollywood adaptations has brought the necessary context, more and more daredevils are opening specialized publishing houses and stores, thematic festivals are being held more and more often... But what “ Will Tatu and Patu be my own son's first book to read? I didn't expect this.
Although these comics also assume the perception of a very young “reader” - the text may not be read at all or read selectively in a chaotic order, and thanks to the “cartoon” illustrations, Lev tries to determine by the characters’ facial expressions what they feel: “Is he scared?” - “No, he was surprised.” This is probably not the best textbook on “facial signals,” but so far no other book has interested him with such enviable constancy.
Of course, for Leo this series is a little “growing up”, because at 3 years old a child still does not have access to the whole palette of delights - for example, from the play on words in the names of the ingenious inventions of Tatu and Patou. But I noted several points that interested him.
In “Instructions for Falling Asleep,” he is especially impressed by the fact that he is no longer the smallest baby, like Tatu and Patu’s niece, and that he can already show care for someone younger than himself. He was very impressed by the non-pedagogical porridge truck and the process of feeding porridge from a toy train. And, of course, he comes into indescribable delight when I depict a massage mattress and a “jelly bed” (however, all this ends in jumping around our completely ordinary bed, turned into jelly by the power of fantasy, which is not at all conducive to falling asleep).
In “The Inventors” he is fascinated by the very complex name, which can serve as a speech therapy simulator.
An alarm-feeding-dressing apparatus and a mop helmet are apparently not very relevant at such a young age, and a spread with a hair adder leaves my son perplexed - why? But I myself cannot explain this.
By the way, in those rare moments when “Tatu and Patu” take a break from children’s leafing through the pages, my husband looks at them with some interest. Not many books in our rather large library have received such an honor!
There are still a couple of months until the New Year, even the snow hasn’t really fallen, but it is the New Year’s story that is especially popular with us. Dad saw that the tree was being soldered with mulled wine. And for me (I, of course, also do not stay away from studying “Tattoo and Patu”), I was particularly pleased by the discovery that the joke about pineapples-bananas is perfectly converted into Finnish, and this means that we can safely go to visit the Finnish Santa Claus , without the risk of remaining hungry without knowing the language (I hope Lev will not follow the example of Tattoo and Patu and will not check Santa Claus for authenticity).
But I would like to hope that soon the entire series about Tattoo and Patu will become available in Russian, because we have already read the previous books to their cores a long time ago!
Natalia Klevushkina
Source link: https://www.papmambook.ru/articles/3418/
Books on the site: https://karuselbooks.com/search?q=%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83+%D0%B8+%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83
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