A book to read with the kids: today's recommendation from Ruth Kaufman, from Pequeño Editor

Ruth Kaufman has many professions: she is a teacher, a writer of literature aimed at children, a literary editor, a screenwriter, and an educational television host. She is also the editor of Pequeño Editor with Raquel Franco . However, in this entire career , her "achievement" with capital letters is having published a book for children based on a lecture by Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller . "For now, it only exists in Spanish," she tells Clarín .

Kaufman teaches poetry workshops for teens and adults, as well as writing workshops with an educational focus. Her poetry collections include The Rimaqué; Where the City Ends ; and The Onomatobellas .

She also wrote non-fiction texts such as Abecedario , co-authored with Bianki and Franco, which won an award at the Bologna International Book Fair in Italy in 2015. She was part of the creative team and hosted the poetry workshop program Susurro y altavoz on Canal Encuentro.

If she had to think of a book for the little girl she once was, she says it's two: The Little Sister by Suniyay Moreno and Song of Wolves by Herta Müller. And at Clarín 's request, she reviews the role of books in her life and recommends two must-reads.

–If you were a kid now, what book would you never miss?

–I'm going to choose two books from Pequeño Editor that I love. They're called La hermana menor (The Younger Sister), by Suniyay Moreno, and Canción de lobos (Candy of Wolves ), by Herta Müller. I chose them because I know I'll like them when I'm a child… They have two protagonists who don't live in the city, and that, as an urban girl, interested me even then. They're biographical stories, let's say, based on the memories of the women who wrote them; however, they reach a border where reality trembles.

–What do you remember from your childhood readings?

–As a child, I was a voracious reader. I read the Robin Hood collection, everything written by Johanna Spyri, the author of Heidi. I also read the Little Women series and mystery novels, many fairy tales. I read the “I Know Everything” books, some with pictures of monsters that scared me, and I opened and closed them quickly. I also read Polidoro's stories, beautiful ones with drawings by Osky, Napo, and Ayax Barnes. I read a lot of comics: Little Lulu, Archie, Patoruzú, Patorucito, and Isidoro Cañones . Then I read Fantasías, El Tony. At my parents' house, when you got sick, you had the right to ask for a comic book.

–How does the publisher choose the books it will publish?

–To briefly answer this question, Raquel Franco and I have a reading history that influences our choices. When we're in doubt, we consult with children and adults. If there are projects we think are good but don't exist, we try to write them or commission them.

–Which title in the publisher's catalog has a special history?

–Let me tell you the story. I was reading in an online library. I randomly chose a book of essays by Herta Müller, translated from German. The text I liked the most deals with the enormous value of songs. Those songs that everyone sings and no one knows who wrote them. Herta Müller explains what forces they can mobilize, with arguments and a personal account. At five years old, she was crossing a forest in a car with her grandparents. The car got stuck in the snow, and a pack of wolves, poised to attack, surrounded them. Her grandmother came out to defend them, holding a black umbrella and singing one of those songs. I searched for Herta Müller for two years, until, thanks to the help of the writer Ester Andradi, I found her representative. We told her that this excerpt from the lecture was a picture book, and if she wanted to lend it to us to publish a book aimed at children. She said yes. Mariano Díaz Prieto gave it a visual interpretation. And now it's the only book by Herta Müller—Nobel Prize winner in 2009—for children. For now, it's only available in Spanish.