Irina Tokmakova is a popular writer, whose stories are very popular with her grateful readers, poetess, playwright, and translator. All her work is dedicated to children and intended for a children's audience. Her books can not only save you from boredom, but also teach you how to count, write and express your thoughts correctly.

The name of Irina Petrovna Tokmakova is known to many parents who read her books to their children. This talented woman writes prose about children and for children, and translates poems by foreign authors.

Her creative biography is a great variety of fairy tales for preschool children, which can also teach a lot. She is translating folklore by English and Swedish authors.

Childhood

Ira Tokmakova was born in Moscow on March 3, 1929. The girl's family was decent, prosperous and fairly wealthy. The girl’s father’s name was Pyotr Manukov, he was an electrical engineer by profession, and her mother was Lydia Diligenskaya, a famous pediatrician, head of the Foundling House in Moscow.

Ira was a versatile girl, but most of all she liked to study. She was drawn to knowledge and spent a lot of time in the library reading books on a variety of topics. This knowledge was very useful for the girl in her studies; at school she received only the highest score. Irina’s diligence was not in vain - she graduated from school with a gold medal.

Student years

Since childhood, Irina has been interested in literature. This hobby simply became a necessity in life; she couldn’t imagine herself without reading. She voraciously read works by both domestic and foreign authors. During my school years I even tried to write poetry myself. But she treated her hobby as a hobby, not considering it her life’s work, because she did not even imagine that she had any literary talent.

This became decisive when choosing a higher educational institution - Irina becomes a student of the linguistic department at one of the oldest universities - Moscow State University. Her student years flew by quickly, and now young Irina is a specialist with a higher education and a diploma with honors. After university, the girl found a job in her specialty - as a translator.

Creation

Irina Tokmakova began to engage in literary activities many years later, and completely unexpectedly even for herself. It all started completely by accident. A Swedish energy engineer named Borgqvist appears on a business trip to Russia. Irina works as a translator for him. Their joint work allowed them to get to know each other better and make friends. He was pleasantly surprised when he learned that this young girl was an ardent fan of Swedish folklore. He decided to give Irina a small gift and sent her a book containing Swedish children's songs. This gift was intended for the son of Irina Tokmakova. She happily sat down to translate these poems so that she could read them with her boy. She didn’t even think about showing her work to anyone else. But this was not enough for Irina’s husband, and without saying a word to his wife, he took her works to one of the publishing houses. And since he himself was a creative person - a famous illustrator, he decorated them with his illustrations. The translations were very much liked by the publishing house and were soon published. And in 1961, the world saw Irina Tokmakova’s first book, “The Bees Are Leading a Round Dance.”

Irina's first book became very popular and best-selling, and this became a great incentive for devoting herself to literary activity. Tokmakova works with enthusiasm and in 1962 releases the collection “Trees”, which includes poems of her own composition. Illustrations for these works were also made by my husband, Lev Tokmakov.

Irina writes for her favorite audience – children. The writer has numerous stories for children, which she wrote in verse. Thanks to them, it became popular and recognizable - they had their own style, their own instructive story and morality. Very often they are called parables.

Irina’s work as a dramaturg also brought her fame. Numerous performances based on Irina Petrovna’s plays were performed in various Russian theaters. The reference point was the same - the children's audience, the most beloved and grateful. The children really enjoyed the productions of the plays “Kukareku”, “The Enchanted Hoof”, “Star Masters”, “Morozko”, “Star Walker Fedya” and many others.

Irina Petrovna’s bibliography consists not only of poems and plays, it also amazes with the atypicality of some of her works. She is the author of educational game stories that help children master counting, writing, and reading skills. Tokmakova did not refuse to collaborate with other authors; she has several plays for children, which were created together with S. Prokofieva, a popular writer. These are “A Gift for the Snow Maiden”, “Robin Hood’s Arrow”, “Ivan the Hero and the Tsar Maiden”, “Andrei Strelok and Marya Golubka”.

Personal life

While still a student at Moscow State University, young Irina meets a young man - her future husband. His name was Lev Tokmakov and he was a very talented, promising artist. A great feeling came to them immediately, they realized that this was fate and hastened to formalize their relationship. Very little time passed and the family grew by one person - the Tokmakovs became the happy parents of their first-born Vasily. The son inherited his mother’s talent and also became a poet.

2002 became the most successful year in the biography of Irina Tokmakova - she was awarded the State Prize of Russia. This was a worthy assessment of her work in the literary field.

CONVERSATION OF THE PATH AND THE RIVER
- River, river, where is the ford?
- Here!
Irina Tokmakova

If you want to find out where the river begins, you need to put on comfortable shoes, pack your backpack well and walk along the bank towards the river flow. Persevering people eventually find the stream, or the spring, or the barely visible source where the first drop was born.
It's more difficult with poets. Poets happen like miracles, and it is absolutely impossible to figure out where the miracle comes from.
Maybe Irina Petrovna’s dad, Pyotr Karpovich, a very busy electrical engineer with his work, was to blame for everything. He didn’t play anything with his daughter, but sometimes he sat her, very little, on his knee and for some reason read like this:

or some other poem by your beloved Pushkin.
Or maybe it’s my mother’s fault, Lidia Alexandrovna? She was not just a children's doctor, she was in charge of the Foundling House, where back in the thirties they brought small children abandoned by their parents. And during the war... But not every girl who saw the grief of little orphans at the age of twelve,later becomes a children's writer.
This means that the reason for everything is chance.
If Mr. Borgqvist, an energy engineer from Sweden, had not come to Russia on business, nothing would have happened. He would not have met the young translator, would not have known that she loved Swedish poetry, would not have sent her a book of Swedish children's folk songs as a gift for her little son...
So what? We would look at the pictures and put them on the shelf.
However, here the main culprit appears, Lev Alekseevich Tokmakov. He is everything at once - a husband, a wonderful graphic artist, and a great connoisseur of children's books. When his wife translated several Swedish songs for her son, he took them to the publishing house and at that very moment...
Irina Tokmakova entered Russian children's literature as if she had always been there.

These affectionate lines appeared a year after the first translations, it was a small book “Trees” jointly with Lev Tokmakov, and it immediately became a classic.
It happens. There are such happy words, poems or prose, about which the tongue does not dare to say - “they were written.” Nonsense! They just grew and grew and grew. Like a tree, like a girl, like a cloud over a river.
Adults immediately notice that Tokmakova is all family. If she writes down on paper the conversations of some hedgehog, or a barely noticeable flower, or a very capricious wind, or a dog that never existed because it was simply invented... - Irina Tokmakova boldly writes all the words of all things in the first person. Adults are surprised, admired, touched. But children, probably not. Why be surprised? Every Child and Poet already knows: everything in the world is together. True, everyone says in his own way, but this is nothing. Take it and translate it from floral, from hedgehog, from magical.
Tokmakova does just that. She also translates from English, Armenian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Moldavian, German, Tajik, Uzbek, Swedish, as well as Hindi. Here, for some reason, adults are not surprised: they know that Irina Petrovna graduated from school with a gold medal, and then from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University and even graduate school.
Adults are weirdos.
When stupid adults hear the word “children,” a stupid smile immediately appears on their face, they quickly squat down and begin to mutter: I’ll teach you now... now!.. what to teach? work, study... don't pick your nose...
Irina Tokmakova never teaches anyone anything. If you suddenly want to talk about all her books in serious, adult words, then you will only need one word, quite unexpected: s v o b o d a. And smart adults always understood this. Because they measured freedom not by slogans, but by the depth of their breathing.
When Tokmakova’s children’s, absolutely children’s collection “Fun and Sad” was supposed to appear in the late sixties, its fate turned out to be exactly the same as that of the most adult and daring books: the “senior comrades” tried to “wrap up” the book, well, at least “cut,” and the verses sounded as if time itself had shouted them:

They say that one old and very famous writer loved to read these poems by heart, and then added: “Remember: this is children's literature.”
The entire work of Irina Tokmakova confirmed these words. Prose appeared. Plays and travelogues appeared. And although some books in their “adult meaning” seemed almost like textbooks (“Alya, Klyaksich and the letter “A””, “Maybe zero is not to blame?”), still “inside” these books it was not boring, but cozy, interesting and fun. It was warm there, because Tokmakova’s is always like that.
Maybe the twelve-year-old girl Ira really saw enough of wonderful adults who, even during the war, tried to warm up no one’s children, and then called herself Olesya in order to write twenty-six pages as bright as the sun called “The Pines Are Noisy”?
Maybe it’s not for nothing that Tokmakova’s best story, which brings together people, animals, forests, skies and rough reality, is called tenderly and a little farewell? It’s called “Happy, Ivushkin!”
Because the natural desire of an adult is to make a child happy.

Irina Linkova

WORKS BY I.P. TOKMAKOVA

GOOD TRIP!: [Poems, fairy tales, stories] / Artist. L. Tokmakov. - M.: Bustard, 2001. - 304 p.: ill.

FUN MORNING: [Fairytale. stories] / Artist. L. Tokmakov. - M.: Bustard, 2001. - 318 p.: ill.

BARRY J.M. PETER PAN; POTTER B. PETER RABBIT / Retelling from English. I.P. Tokmakova; Artist L. Tokmakov. - M.: Bustard, 2001. - 319 p.: ill.

Three-volume collection of selected works and translations by Irina Tokmakova.

ALYA, KLYAKSICH AND THE LETTER “A”; MAYBE ZERO IS NOT GUILTY?: Fairy tales / Artist. L. Nasyrov. - M.: Bamboo, 1999. - 102 pp.: color. ill. - (B-schoolboy).

Please don't try to remember and get this buzzword "inter... unteract..." out of your head. Ugh! Well, in short, in Russian it’s called a game with the reader. You give him his word, and he answers you. And as a result, you are together.

This is exactly how the two fairy tales (two games, two detective stories, two adventures) that are included in this book are written.

The first detective is about letters, and the second... That's right! About the numbers.

But everywhere there is a girl, Alya. And she is so alive and good that everyone else becomes alive too.

ALYA, KLYAKSICH AND THE LETTER “A”: [Tale-fairy tale] / Artist. V. Chizhikov. - M.: Bustard, 2002. - 77 p.: ill. - (Drawing by Viktor Chizhikov).

BEOWULF; ROBIN HOOD / Intro. Art. I. Pankeeva. - M.: Egmont Russia Ltd., 2000. - 269 p.: ill. - (Legends of Old Europe).

Retellings of the ancient Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf and the legends of Robin Hood.

EVENING TALE / Artist. O. Zobnina. - M.: OLMA-Press Education, 2003. - 63 p.: ill. - (Be able to read well).

WHERE THE FISH SLEEPS: [Poems] / Fig. V. Konashevich. - L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1990. - 16 p.: ill.

TREES: Poems / Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Malysh, 1987. -: ill.

If a person sings well, it is very joyful to listen to him. But if they sing in two voices, and the song flows in harmony, like the sound of water and the rustling of leaves over a river, then the feeling is completely special. You no longer think about the song, but about fate. Maybe it still happens that people understand each other and love each other?

Almost all (well, almost all) of Irina Tokmakova’s books are drawn by Tokmak Lev, husband and friend.

FOR CHILDREN AND ABOUT CHILDREN: Poems and fairy tales / Artist. L. Tokmakov. - M.: AST: Astrel, 2001. - 191 p.: ill. - (Schoolchildren’s Reader).

STAR MASTERS: Fairy tales for reading and performance / Artist. S. Kovalenkov. - M.: Det. lit., 1985. - 96 p.: ill.

AND A FUN MORNING WILL COME: A fairy tale / Drawing by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1986. - 127 p.: ill.

If you have ever had a dream and then it came true, you will read this book smiling.

And if you are just waiting for your dream, quickly take the girl Polina’s hand. She knows how to achieve joy.

CARUSEL: Poems / Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1987. - 112 pp.: ill.

CUKAREKU: Fairy tales / Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Malysh, 1980. - 79 p.: ill.

SUMMER ROW: Poems, fairy tales, stories / Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1990. - 168 pp.: ill.

This is a big beautiful book with poetry, prose and wonderful pictures.

This is a gift. Not for some planned birthday, but for every day. After all, a little person is born not just once, but every minute.

If he picks up such a book, he will be born a little more.

"Fun and Sad"

“I hate Tarasov:

He shot a moose..."

Some admire: ah! How brave: with such kids about such problems!

Others are indignant: I hate it?! Who is this? An adult uncle? Yes, if everyone is snotty...

And only the smartest adults know that fun and sad, warm and cold, wonderful and terrible happen in early childhood. And if then you don’t understand who to hate, you will remain a freak for the rest of your life.

MARUSYA WILL BE BACK: A fairy tale / Artist. B. Lapshin. - M.: Det. lit., 1991. - 111 p.: ill.

How easy it is to invent fables without looking back at simple everyday life.

How difficult and important it is to create a fairy tale, starting with the words “work”, “train”, “chicken with rice” and even “asthma”.

But you must admit, it’s even more difficult to return. From adventures, victories, surprises, from the hugs of the kind, plush, bright blue bear Marusya, who came to life solely for you...

But the storyteller differs from the verbiage as the hero differs from the traitor. The storyteller has the strength to embrace both life and fiction at once. That is why the girl Varya and the plush Marusya will meet again.

MARUSYA WILL BE BACK; HAPPY, IVUSHKIN!; AND THERE WILL BE A FUN MORNING; GNOMOBILE: Fairy tales / [Comp. D. Isakov; Il. A. Shahgeldyan]. - M.: RIPOL CLASSIC, TPO "Interface", 1997. - 447 p.: ill. - (B-ka Solnyshkina).

Contents: I. Tokmakova. Marusya will return; Happy, Ivushkin!; And a cheerful morning will come: Fairy tales; E. Sinclair. Gnomobile: Gnousual news about gnomes: A fairy tale / Authorized. lane I. Tokmakova.

MAYBE ZERO IS NOT TO GUILTY?: Fairy tales / Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Moscow Club, 1993. - 80 p.: ill. - (B-ka “Moscow Club”).

Contents: Alya, Klyaksich and the letter “A”; Maybe zero is not to blame?

LET'S PLAY: [Poems] / Art. L. Tokmakov; Ser. issued S. Lyubaeva. - M.: Ed. magazine “Murzilka; Publishing House "Priboy", 1996. - 32 p.: ill.

CONVERSATIONS: Poems / Drawing by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1988. - 16 p.: ill.

ROBIN HOOD: Story / Art. M.Petrov. - M.: TERRA, 1996. - 255 pp.: color. ill.

PINES MAKE NOISE: Poems, stories, fairy tales / Preface. V.Alexandrova; Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1985. - 319 pp.: ill. - (Golden library: Selected works for children and youth).

HAPPY, IVUSHKIN!: A fairy tale / Fig. I. Nakhova. - M.: Det. lit., 1983. - 127 p.: ill.

HAPPY, IVUSHKIN!: A fairy tale / Artist. D. Goncharova. - M.: Dragonfly, 1998. - 102 p.: ill. - (B-schoolboy).

For example, you live in a village, you are six years old and you have a best friend - an old horse named Lusha. And suddenly trouble happens: you need to go to the city. Forever. But they don’t take old horses into the city. They are written off.

What does a normal man of preschool age do in this case?

Right.

By the way, while Ivushkin and Lusha are running away from trouble, it turns out that you can’t say “they” about mom and dad. Even if “they” are a little to blame. That's all you can't do.

Here's a book.

HAPPY, IVUSHKIN!: Poems, stories, fairy tales, plays: Selected / Preface. V.Alexandrova; Drawn by L. Tokmakov. - M.: Det. lit., 1992. - 638 pp.: ill.

This is the largest and - certainly - the most successful collection of poetry, drama and prose from different years. Young children, of course, will prefer bright editions with pictures, but older children, returning to their favorite author, will be happy to pick up a solid volume. And adults, having become acquainted with this “almost collected works,” will have a clear idea from which pages they would like to start introducing their children to Irina Petrovna Tokmakova.

I.P.TOKMAKOVA-TRANSLATOR -

HAPPY TRIP...: Poems / Fav. translations and retellings by I. Tokmakova; Rice. S. Islands. - M.: Det. lit., 1985. - 127 pp.: ill.

Linguistic scientists have established for sure that English cats, French ducks and Chinese horses speak completely differently from Russians. About Russians we write “meow-meow” or “quack-quack”, but about English...

However, the duck cats themselves have no idea that these people have different languages, and understand each other perfectly.

The same thing will happen to children if you call a real translator.

Look!

Look!

Here he is crawling.

Mister Snake.

Mr. Netnog.

Mr. Hide quickly.

Mister Fear.

Mister Poison.

Better get out of the way, buddy.

Don't get caught by him!

The Nigerian poet Remi Akimade is absolutely right. And Irina Tokmakova is absolutely right, having combined her translations and retellings from a variety of human languages ​​in one children’s book.

Irina Linkova (annotations), Alexey Kopeikin (bibliography)

LITERATURE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF I.P. TOKMAKOVA

“...My whole life”: Conversation with Irina Petrovna Tokmakova // Children's literature. - 1999. - No. 2-3. - P. 36-41.

Aleksandrov V. “Where the pine tree is mature, there it is red” // Tokmakova I. Pines make noise. - M.: Det. lit., 1985. - pp. 5-10.

Alexandrov V. A cheerful morning has come... // Tokmakova I. Happy, Ivushkin! - M.: Det. lit., 1992. - pp. 3-8.

Kudryavtseva L. “The artist is the last to leave the studio” // Preschool education. - 1993. - No. 8. - P. 59-63.

Prikhodko V. “Pines want to grow to the sky...” // Prikhodko V. The poet talks to children. - M.: Det. lit., 1980. - pp. 141-194.

A.K.

SCREEN ADAPTATIONS OF I. P. TOKMAKOVA’S WORKS

- CARTOONS -

Mysterious planet. Based on the play "Starship Fedya". Scene I. Tokmakova. Dir. B. Ardov. Comp. I. Kataev. USSR, 1974. The roles were voiced by: V. Sergachev, I. Yasulovich, A. Batalov, M. Vinogradova and others. Rostik and Kesha. Scene I. Tokmakova, L. Berdichevsky. Dir. L. Berdichevsky. Comp. M. Meerovich. USSR, 1979.

Irina Petrovna Tokmakova (born March 3, 1929) is a children’s poet and prose writer, translator of children’s poems. She has written several educational fairy tales for preschool children and classic translations of English and Swedish folk poems.

Born in Moscow, her father is an electrical engineer, Pyotr Karpovich, her mother, Lidia Aleksandrovna, a pediatrician, was in charge of the Foundling House.

Since childhood, she wrote poetry, but believed that she did not have literary abilities, so she chose the profession of linguist. In 1953, she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University and attended graduate school in general and comparative linguistics. At the same time she worked as a translator.

Literary translations of children's poems began with the fact that the Swedish energy engineer Mr. Borgkvist came to Russia on business, who, having met the young translator, learned that she loved Swedish poetry, and later sent her a collection of Swedish folk children's songs for her little son. The first translations of poems were made for personal use, but her husband, Lev Tokmakov, took them to the publishing house, and they were accepted.

A year later, the first book of his own poems, “Trees,” was published, written together with Lev Tokmakov.

Sleep-grass

The distant forest stands like a wall,
And in the forest, in the wilderness of the forest,
An owl sits on a branch
Sleepy grass grows there.

They say sleep-grass
Knows sleepy words;
How he whispers his words,
The head will immediately drop.

I'm at the owl's today
I'll ask you to sleep, grass:
May you fall asleep - grass
He will say sleepy words.

Pines

The pines want to grow to the sky,
They want to sweep the sky with branches,
So that within a year
The weather was clear.

Near the river, at the cliff,
The willow is crying, the willow is crying.
Maybe she feels sorry for someone?
Maybe she's hot in the sun?
Maybe the wind is playful
Did you pull the willow's pigtail?
Maybe the willow is thirsty?
Maybe we should ask her?

Rowan

A little red berry
Rowan gave me.
I thought it was sweet
And she is like a hina.

Is it this berry?
I'm just immature
Is it the cunning rowan tree?
Did you want to make a joke?

In a wonderful country

In one country
In a wonderful country,
Where not to be
To you and me
Boot with black tongue
In the morning he laps up milk,
And all day through the window
The potato looks out with its eye.
The bottle's neck sings,
Gives concerts in the evening,
A chair with bent legs
Dancing to the accordion.
In one country
In a wonderful country...
Why don't you believe me?

Where does the fish sleep?

It's dark at night. It's quiet at night.
Fish, fish, where do you sleep?

The fox trail leads to the hole,
Dog trail to the kennel.

Belkin's trail leads to a hollow,
Myshkin - to the hole in the floor.

It’s a pity that in the river, on the water,
There are no traces of you anywhere.
Only darkness, only silence.
Fish, fish, where do you sleep?

Spring

Spring is coming to us
With quick steps,
And the snowdrifts are melting
Under her feet.
Black thawed patches
Visible in the fields.
That's right, very warm
Spring has legs.

grain

Come out, come out, sunshine,
We will sow the seed.
A sprout will soon grow,
Will stretch to the east
Will stretch to the east
A bridge will be thrown over.
Let's walk along the bridge
Let's come visit the sun

Patter

There was a sperm whale as a cook,
And the mushy eater is a whale.
But the sperm whale caught a cold,
He started coughing a lot, and then -
The sperm whale has become a sperm eater,
And the cook is a whale.

Irochka forever / Zakhoder scared, and Marshak and Mikhalkov blessed
Irina Tokmakova left us at the age of 90 / What do you remember about the poet, translator, writer?

Died Irina Petrovna Tokmakova, an excellent children's writer, translator, laureate of the State Prize of Russia for works for children and youth. It’s so strange to never hear her voice on the phone again. An amazing voice, melodious and young. More

A wonderful galaxy of children's writers and poets of the Soviet period: Mikhalkov, Barto, Zakhoder, Dragunsky... And Irina Petrovna Tokmakova. Author of the famous “Fish, Fish, Where Do You Sleep?”, “Little Willie-Winky”, “Summer Ends, Summer Ends...” But she never thought that she would become a professional writer - although she easily composed poetry and everyone noted her talent.

An excellent student from Moscow, after graduating from Moscow State University she entered graduate school in general and comparative linguistics and worked as a translator. Once she translated children's songs from Swedish for her little son. Irina’s husband, illustrator Lev Tokmakov, took them to the publishing house, and they liked them so much that they were soon published as a separate book. And then the first book of poems by Irina Tokmakova, “Trees,” appeared - about a curly birch, about a mountain ash, about an apple tree. This was the Tokmakovs’ first joint book - Lev Alekseevich beautifully illustrated Irina Petrovna’s poems.

"Little Apple Tree"
In my garden -
White-white,
Everything is in bloom.

I put on a dress
With a white border.
Little apple tree
Make friends with me."

All of Irina Petrovna’s poems are very simple, easy and memorable after the first reading. This is probably why children love them so much.

From her book “Alya, Klyaksich and the letter A” I learned the alphabet, and then, years later, my children. She is the author of collections of poems and fairy tales “And a cheerful morning will come” and “Happy, Ivushkin!” The story “The Pines Are Noisy” - about the evacuation of children during the war, is so poignant, lightly tragic - it is impossible to read it without tears. Irina Tokmakova translated foreign classics into Russian: “Alice in the Magic Grass”, “Winnie the Pooh”, fairy tales about the Moomins... She also retold in her own way the fairy tales about Nils and Peter Pan. One of her latest works is a retelling of Shakespeare's plays for children. “Romeo and Juliet”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”... Tokmakova’s light and elegant style presented the characters of the English playwright in a completely new, unusual perspective. They became accessible and understandable, like everything Irina Petrovna wrote about.

Maybe this is a legend passed down in the literary community, or maybe it’s true. At a meeting of the Russian Children's Book Council, the legendary Sergei Mikhalkov said:

I’m ninety years old, I need to make informed decisions. Nominate Irochka, Irochka is young, she is not yet eighty.

Then, in 2002, the Russian State Prize for the book “Have a nice journey!” handed to Irina Petrovna.

On March 3, 2018, she turned 89 years old. Our forever young Irochka did not live one year to reach ninety.

In recent years, Irina Petrovna has always been a little sad. This sadness settled in her after Lev Alekseevich passed away in 2010. But she was always open to new plans, to re-editions of her old works, which had already become classics, and to new translations. She was adored by everyone who came across her: illustrators, editors, literary critics, aspiring authors and seasoned writers.

But the main thing is that her work was and will be adored by those for whom she wrote all her life: children.
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Irina Tokmakova was a laureate of the State Prize of Russia for works for children and youth

For contribution to children's literature Tokmakov honored the prestigious Alexander Green Prize. How did it all begin?

A professional linguist who graduated from Moscow State University with flying colors, she became a children's writer by accident. I translated a book of Swedish folk songs for my son. Her husband, the famous illustrator Lev Tokmakov, insisted on taking it to the publishing house. And then they asked me to translate more.

She either translated from her favorite Swedish and Scottish, or wrote it herself. Simple, kind rhymes were distributed to kindergartens and primary schools.

But Tokmakova’s most famous works are in prose. The stories “Alya, Klyaksich and the Letter A” and “Maybe Zero is Not to Blame” are still considered bestsellers among parents of first-graders. Speaking in the language of children, without didacticism or edification, books awaken interest in mathematics and grammar.

In recent years, she has worked a lot, re-translating Astrid Lingren’s story “Mio, my Mio.”

Literary critic Ksenia Moldavskaya was close to Tokmakova: “Her poems are play and joy. Even the fact that they were included in textbooks did not deprive them of their lives. And the Scottish songs “Peggy” and “Little Willie-Winky” can be perceived as a fact of language, this is forever. An incident at a meeting of the Russian Children’s Book Council deserves a separate discussion:

“I’m ninety years old,” said Sergei Mikhalkov, “and at ninety you have to make informed decisions.” Better nominate Irochka. Irochka is young, she is not yet eighty.

Fifteen years have passed since that meeting, and I still have the first association about Irina Petrovna - young Irochka. A month ago she turned 89. She will never turn ninety again.”
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The poet, translator, and author of children's books Irina Tokmakova has passed away. The wonderful translator, poet, and author of wonderful children's books died on April 5 at the age of 89. About this on your blog on Facebook

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Slide captions:

Irina Petrovna Tokmakova Moscow, 2016 Teacher: Antipova I.I. born in March 1929

born March 3, 1929 in Moscow. Irina’s parents were an example of an intelligent family of that time: the girl’s father, Pyotr Karpovich, was an electrical engineer, and her mother, Lidia Aleksandrovna, was a pediatrician and was in charge of the Foundling House. Irina Petrovna Tokmakova

During the Great Patriotic War, orphanages were evacuated to the rear. Schoolgirl Ira Tokmakova was in one of them with her mother. Twelve-year-old Irochka was already writing her first poems, but she believed that she did not have talent. The girl graduated from school with a gold medal, and after that she was expected to attend Moscow State University. Already there Ira studied at the Faculty of Philology. In 1953, after completing her studies, she entered graduate school in general and comparative linguistics. At the same time, she worked as a translator.

Professional philologist, translator from Armenian, Lithuanian, Uzbek, English, Bulgarian, German and other languages! Irina Petrovna is a children's poet and prose writer, laureate of the State Prize of Russia for works for children and youth. She was one of the first representatives of Soviet literature for children in distant Africa, where she studied what Irina Petrovna Tokmakova children read in Nigeria and other African countries.

Irina began to translate children's poems by chance, after a friend of hers sent from Sweden a book of children's songs in Swedish for her son. Irina translated these songs into Russian, and her husband, for good luck, took the translation to the publishing house.

She has written several educational fairy tales for preschool children and classic translations of English and Swedish folk poems. Despite the fact that not much was expected from this act, Irina’s translation was soon published as a separate book. Very soon the first book was followed by the second, containing Tokmakova’s own poems for children, called “Trees.”

The stories are tales about the adventures of the girl Ali and her friend Anton.

On the topic: methodological developments, presentations and notes

Reading lesson 2nd grade. Creativity of I.P. Tokmakova

Goal: to familiarize students with the works of I.P. Tokmakova, the formation of a culture of speech, introducing children to fiction as the art of words. Objectives: create conditions for improvement...

Life and work of Surikov V.I.

I present a presentation and frame-by-frame text for it with materials from the biography and history of the creation of paintings by the great artist Vasily Surikov. The presentation is voluminous (43 frames), so I’m making a link...