Narrative
Саякатчы бала
Not translated into English
Kusein Esenkojoev · 1938
Synopsis
The adventures of a schoolboy with an inventor's dreams, in short chapters: the ibex hunt in the mountains, a flight aboard a sphere, the resurrection of a mammoth, a boat that moves over every kind of terrain. In these episodes, a child's science and imagination open up journeys that the technology of his time did not yet allow.
Context
The booklet appeared in Frunze from Kyrgyzmambas, when its author was eighteen and had just begun his higher studies. He had given his first stories to Kazan. He is regarded as the first science-fiction writer in his language, and left three works of this genre for young readers, this one, a second about a sphere and a third. He also wrote poems, essays and serialised pieces, most of them left unfinished.
Who it is for
Twenty-four pages, in Kyrgyz, never translated. The text is addressed to children and asks nothing more than to know that a teenager wrote it.
Prizes and reception
Its author is regarded as one of the founders of his country's children's literature, and as the first to have introduced science fiction into it.