Meet Batyr: the first children's book about the work of Batyrkhan Shukenov

The Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation has presented a new series of children's books "Meet!". In the first book, young readers will get acquainted with the life and work of the famous musician Batyrkhan Shukenov.

Children's book "Meet! Batyr" will show the story of an outstanding singer, musician and composer without "adult censorship". The authors decided not to ignore the difficult life situations of the Batyr, so that children could feel the importance of freedom, independence and self-belief. The author of the book was Sima Omarkulova.

To work with book illustrations, the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation announced a competition of invited applications. 10 illustrators took part.

"At first we chose another illustrator, but, unfortunately, we didn't work together. As a result, in March we held an additional competition and chose Aigerim Amanchieva. The work was built in such a way that first our author wrote the text and after that, together with Aigerim, we worked out the illustrations," said Gauhar Kozhasheva, project manager of the foundation.

Illustrator Aigerim Amanchieva has done a lot of research to create a book illustration about the life of Batyrkhan Shukenov. In the works of the artist, exact realism is tracked, down to everyday objects.

"In my illustrations, I show him from childhood, how he came to music, with what trepidation he treated his work, how he was recognized and loved in all CIS countries. I wanted to convey the atmosphere of that time, Soviet Leningrad, the apple city of Almaty. I definitely wanted to show what a patriot of his country he was, what a soulful song he gave to his homeland and his people. And of course, I couldn't help but mention the first artists with whom he performed," Aigerim Amanchieva shared.

I would especially like to note the U-turn with the group "Arai", which depicts their performance on the stage of Gorky Park in Almaty.

The process of working on the illustrations by Aigerim Amanchieva took more than 2 months.

"I wanted to show him as he really was — wise, talented, kind, hardworking and very responsive. To convey his sincere love for music, with what perseverance he went to success, and won the recognition and love of the public," the illustrator said.

The children's book series "Meet!" is the first acquaintance of young readers with the native heroes of the country. According to the director of the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation – Marat Aitmagambetov, our children's literature has long lacked inspiring images.

"Our foundation is glad to be a part of a wonderful project and present the first book of the series "Meet!" about the Batyr. This is a colorful and interesting story about hard work, family and talent that children and parents can read and discuss together," Marat Aitmagambetov shared.

The book was published in 500 copies in Russian and 500 pieces in Kazakh. A story with amazing illustrations "Meet me! Batyr" is already available for sale in stores of the Meloman, Book City, Synesthesia, Sentyabr.

The project was implemented jointly with the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation, the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation and the Tentek Children's Publishing house. Consultations during the creation of the book were provided by a child psychologist Alevtina Satyreva.