Review by the poet Mr Vassilis Tsakiroglou on the our children’s book “A Line and a Dot and a Miracle on the Spot”
Neo Heraklio 22-11-2021
EVANGELIA GKIONI “LINE-DOT-MIRACLE-SPOT”
Dear Evangelia,
We all know that children like it and calm down when they listen at night to stories told by their grandparents or even through books that speak to them with pictures and words. But the grandfather who writes to you now,is especially happy because his grandchildren (including him) who read your book enjoyed the writing, the imagination and the writer’s craft of getting the message across to the reader, as if it is what they wanted to hear but didn’t know from whom.
And so here your hero who has traveled all over the known world, the great State of the Wows, (I personally don’t like Americanisms), arrives at the Wise Man your pen created to reveal the great truth that the miracle the he wanted to be was himself.
You gently and methodically push children to come to terms with imperfection, to be fearless and not fatalistic, and to come of age as wonders in their beautiful world that will make it even better.
I find your project very interesting, as it may be addressed to parents and teachers, who will want to “work” with their child or “their children” on the occasion of the book. This is not to say that a child cannot enjoy it without the mediation of an active adult of course.
A tender tale that ends with the singing rhythm that the Wise Man wants to give (and here you have done wisely), with many pedagogical virtues and wonderful admonitions to parents.
I am not a critic of the word to write more for you, a lover and servant of poetry I am, who found your book enjoyable and educational so I heartily wish you to continue on the tender and uphill path of children’s literature, climbing higher and higher.
You know, of course, that this ladder has no end.
Yours sincerely,
Vassilis Tsakiroglou, poet
