The conversation on WP television concerned the question of whether fear can be a child’s friend. In the fairy tale “The Box Girl,” Grażyna Hanaf describes a child who was so afraid that she lived in a box. The fairy tale addresses the subject of fear, a very unloved feeling. Child psychologist Karolina Bujak from WP Kobieta recommended talking with children about their anxieties and fear.

“Parents are reluctant to talk about fear, and do so rarely,” observes Karolina Bujak. “The worst thing is dividing emotions into bad and good ones, while anxiety is just as important and experienced an emotion as joy,” the psychologist explained.

The hosts Kamila Biedrzycka-Osica and Patryk Ignaczak wondered whether fear can be tamed.

“I would not try to tame fear,” said the writer Grażyna Hanaf. “Fear is meant to protect us, and children know this perfectly well: they should feel fear of falling from a bicycle travelling too fast or from a tree when they climb too high. Anxiety, on the other hand, is, as in my fairy tale, like a box that limits us. Children can distinguish between the two as well. They know that anxiety should be overcome,” added Grażyna Hanaf.

Conversations about emotions, naming them, and learning how we react to fear and anxiety are important knowledge for children, enriching their skills and their ability to communicate well.

In addition to writing books, Grażyna Hanaf also conducts workshops using therapeutic fairy tales. Last year, she visited several dozen schools and preschools, where she read her fairy tales to children and talked about emotions and fulfilling dreams. Teachers speak highly of these meetings. They emphasise their integrating effect on the class, their interesting format, and the writer’s ability to reach children, explaining and addressing various, even difficult, questions and situations with tact.

Grażyna Hanaf’s fairy tales and novels are published by istotne.pl publishing house. We expanded our activities in 2015. The work and effort we put into building the new department resulted in good promotion in nationwide media. We are very pleased by the interest in the titles we publish. We are also grateful to the most important friends we have in the county and city. They supported us in particular:

  • Tomasz Gabrysiak supported us as head of the municipal promotion department
  • Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska, director of BOK-MCC, always welcomed us with great openness at the centre, where our three books had their premieres
  • Beata Domerecka, director of MDK, made the Stary Theatre available to us for a photo session and promotion of the new fairy tale
  • Teresa Rudzińska, director of the Bolesławiec Psychological and Educational Counselling Centre, reviewed our fairy tales
  • Beata Widera, events organisation instructor at GOKiS Bolesławiec, organised meetings in communal Folk Houses, which we warmly greet
  • Grażyna Wężyk, head of the library in Kruszyn, organised a series of meetings with children from the Primary School in Kruszyn
  • Galeria Bolesławiec City Center promoted our publishing house
  • Monika Grzyb, a teacher at Primary School No. 2 and coordinator of the All of Poland Reads to Children programme, organised a series of meetings with children
  • Monika Łuksza (Primary School No. 4 in Bolesławiec), secretary of the Legnica Branch of the Bibliotherapeutic Society, organised meetings with children and added the fairy tales to the reading list, which helps
  • Marta Wójcik (MZS No. 2), the school coordinator of a nationwide programme promoting reading, organised meetings and workshops
  • Marlena Przybylska, a school counsellor who organised meetings for children in neighbouring communes
  • Aneta Antczak, Sylwia Czernatowicz and Paweł Domzalski (ZSOiZ Bolesławiec) organised meetings with young people and promoted Joachim
  • Mirosław Sakowski, head of the II General Secondary School, promoted Joachim

Fairy-tale promotion

The fairy tales are promoted on nationwide services Fokus.TV, Polskie Radio RDC and on the blogs: egodziecka.pl, qlturka.pl, naszekluski.pl, duzarodzina.pl, beznudy.pl, zblogowani.pl (Krople Szczęścia). The fairy tales are recommended by the Polish Bibliotherapeutic Society. During workshops using fairy tales, we supported the Prof. Zbigniew Religa Foundation for the Development of Cardiac Surgery.

A new fairy tale, “The Missing Parents,” in January!

We have a surprise for young and adult readers. On 20 January, the premiere of a new children’s fairy tale by Grażyna Hanaf will take place. The promotional evening will be organised in the friendly surroundings of the Stary Theatre in Bolesławiec. This time, it will be a detective story.