21 traditional children’s stories have been selected as part of TRACE, the Traditional children’s stories for a common future project, and translated into English language in order to present to a wider audience the cultural heritage of Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Spain, as well as to help these countries’ young generations to exchange and thus keep alive that valuable legacy. The selection process included eminent professionals in the field of education and information and communication sciences in each of the four countries, and the selected stories will now be further translated into the languages of the partner countries in order to be published as part of the TRACE website.
The project is coordinated by the National and University Library in Zagreb, and its project partners are Mala filozofija/Petit Philosophy association (Zadar, Croatia), Josip Pupačić Primary School (Omiš, Croatia), University of the Peloponnese (Trípolis, Greece), Creative Ideas association (Riga, Latvia) and Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Granada, Spain).
TRACE was launched on 1 September 2018, after the National and University Library in Zagreb received a €178,330.00 grant for it as part of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, and it will be running until 31 August 2020.
The project targets teachers, educational workers and librarians working with children between the ages of 6 and 12 with the aim of getting them acquainted with traditional children’s stories from the partner countries, and thus also with these countries’ cultures. Apart from the translation of these countries’ finest works of children’s literature into English and the languages of the partner countries, the project activities also include workshops whose programme will present creative and innovative methods of using traditional children’s stories, as a valuable part of European cultural heritage, to encourage reading, critical thinking and research of one’s own culture among children in the targeted age group.
The selected stories, by country:
Croatia:
Froggy Girl,
The Black Ram,
The Story of the Plitvice Lakes,
Manda’s Well,
Red Rocks,
Don’t Bump into a Tree nor Hit the Stone.
Greece:
Theseus and the Minotaur,
Icarus & Daedalus Wings,
The Man, the Boy and the Donkey.
Latvia:
Golden Egg,
The Little Bread Bun,
The Old Man’s Mitten,
Wild Animals and the Dough Box Maker,
The Bee Is Punished for Lying,
The Fly Is Granted the Freedom of Choice,
The Grateful Creatures,
The Star Tram, Author: Juris Zvirgzdiņš
Spain:
The Monk and the Weasel,
The Traveller and the Goldsmith,
The Caliph, the Shepherd and Happiness,
How to Teach an Elephant to Speak.