Ukrainian Biography Book for Young Schoolchildren: Forming Children’s National and Civic Identity

Abstract

The main features of the Ukrainian biography book for younger schoolchildren during the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014–2025) as an important component of the formation of national and civic identity are outlined. It has been found that biographies for younger schoolchildren are divided into nonfiction (memoirs, children’s diaries and adult memories of childhood, collections of short stories and essays, encyclopaedic publications-thesauri, scientific-journalistic, popular science and scientific-artistic documentary biographies)and literary texts (autobiographical stories and novels, biographical stories and novels, very rarely – poetic and dramatic biographies). The active development of biographies-pictures and comics, genres of egodocumentary, biographical fairy tale, biographical story is indicated. In the reference and encyclopaedic book for younger schoolchildren, the inclusion of Ukrainian figures in the European and global context, emphasizing their contribution to the common heritage of humanity, became relevant. Along with the traditional figures of the official pantheon, biographies of idols of a certain generation and “people from the screen”, academic scientists, church figures, and representatives of national communities appeared in the reading of younger schoolchildren. The number of female personalities and their spheres of activity has increased significantly (along with traditional biographies, biographies of women who have achieved success in business, military affairs, sports, church life, etc. have appeared). In the process of forming a national biographical space in the circle of children’s reading in Ukraine, pan-European strategies and models of biographical reconstruction and promotion of biographical knowledge have become common. It became imperative to emphasize the Ukrainian context as an important element of the global paradigm. All this makes the Ukrainian biography book for children an important component of the formation of national and civic identity, a socio-cultural phenomenon that reflects the evolution of Ukrainian society, which is transforming, defining its own identity and developing effective mechanisms for overcoming totalitarian stereotypes and cultivating national values.