‘Elu’ Among Estonia’s Best Children’s Books

My friend and fellow Esperantist István Ertl shared with me today the good news that the book Life (in its Estonian version, Elu) was declared yesterday one of the best children's books of 2025 by the Estonian Children's Literature Centre (ELK).

A little history:

— I wrote the story “Life” in December 1998. As part of a collection of stories, it received an honorable mention in the 1999 José María Sánchez National Short Story Award.

— Turning the story “Life” into an illustrated book was the brilliant idea of the engineer and editor Mónica Mora. She created the first edition in Panama in 2021, under her imprint Perezoso Editores, with the exquisite illustrations of the Argentine artist Margarita Cubino. She made it with Mónica as editor, Román Flórez as art director and Juan Tarté as graphic designer, with the collaboration of Randy Navarro and yours truly.

— With the authorization of Mónica and Margarita, in 2024 I then produced —under my own imprint Zirie, in what I consider a collaboration with Perezoso Editores— a second edition of Life, and a series of translations into several languages, including Esperanto, German, English, French and Slovenian.

— The Esperanto translation, Vivo, made by the Cuban Esperantist and translator Norberto Díaz Guevara and me, received in 2025 the Children's Book of the Year award (Infanlibro de la Jaro) in the Literary Contests (Belartaj Konkursoj) of the Universal Esperanto Association.

— The translator and Esperantist István Ertl, who served as reviewer of the story “Life” for its publication in 2025 in the magazine Beletra Almanako, decided to translate the story into Estonian, together with his wife, the actress and singer Liina Vahtrik. They did it in 2025, as an exercise for István to practice and refine his command of Estonian, Liina's native language.

— In a demonstration of the usefulness of Esperanto as a bridge language, István used the Esperanto version of the story as his source. (István, being a polyglot, also used the Spanish original of the story as a reference —to resolve any doubt— and I don't know whether he also used my English translation.)

— The result was Elu (2025), printed in Estonia by Laupäev at István's expense, as a project of his own. He distributed it to bookstores in that country that I don't know. A few weeks after its publication, it received the recommendation seal of the Estonian Children's Literature Centre (or ELK, Eesti Lastekirjanduse Keskus).

— And last night, that same Estonian Children's Literature Centre, together with the Estonian Association for the Protection of Children, honored it at a ceremony as one of the best children's books of 2025, at an event that recognized another 17 books for children and 11 books for young people, selected from among more than seven hundred books considered.

I thank the Estonian Children's Literature Centre for this recognition. I thank István and Liina, and congratulate them on the recognition of this beautiful personal project of theirs to publish Life in Estonia. And I thank everyone who has had anything to do with Life in the past, especially Margarita Cubino, Mónica Mora and Norberto Díaz Guevara, whose footprints can be perceived —alongside those of István and Liina— in Elu.