Could just a few minutes of reading together each day shape a child's future? According to Artem Bidenko, the answer is yes.
He believes that reading is much more than a leisure activity. It is a fundamental skill that shapes language development, critical thinking, learning ability, and the way we understand the world. And reading aloud, he says, is one of the most valuable habits adults can give a child during the preschool years.
Artem Bidenko is Chair of the Board of the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association, a public figure, communications expert, and former State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Today, together with the Association, he works to promote reading, support Ukraine's publishing industry, and strengthen the country's reading culture.
In this interview, we discuss why reading remains an essential life skill in the digital age, how the war has affected children's publishing in Ukraine, the role of educators and parents in developing children's reading habits, and why reading aloud may be one of the greatest investments adults can make in a child's future.
You have worked in public administration, media, communications, and cultural policy. What makes the publishing and book sector particularly important to you today?
I wouldn't say that today is somehow a special moment for the book industry. My perspective is rather academic: reading, written language, and semiotics in general are fundamental to human civilization and personal development.
Reading is one of the things that makes us human. It allows societies to preserve knowledge, pass experience from one generation to another, and shape cultural identity. It is a universal tool. Just as the wheel enables us to move from one place to another, reading enables humanity to accumulate knowledge, preserve it, share it, and move civilization forward.
If we use Vernadsky's terminology, reading is one of the foundations of the noosphere.
Today we are gradually moving into an era where reading is becoming increasingly digital. Books themselves have evolved into electronic formats. That is why I believe we should move beyond thinking only about printed books and instead focus on reading itself—literacy, language, and the ability to work with words, sentences, and ideas.
Books as physical objects represent one stage in human history, from the invention of the printing press until today. But reading itself is the skill that makes us human, helps us grow, and allows us to pass knowledge on to future generations.
You became Chair of the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association during a particularly challenging period. What are the Association's main strategic priorities today?
Promoting reading is our key strategic priority. However, that mission includes many different areas.
It involves supporting the publishing industry and its businesses, developing a culture of reading across society, implementing cultural initiatives, and supporting libraries, displaced families, and children.
Everything revolves around promoting reading as a cultural value.
As an industry association, our role is to represent and advocate for the publishing sector. We do this through media engagement, public awareness campaigns, cooperation with government institutions, public speaking, and advocacy for the industry.
When it comes to children's access to quality books, what are the biggest challenges facing Ukraine today?
The greatest challenge is undoubtedly the war and the fact that millions of children have left Ukraine.
In 2022, the publishing market declined by an estimated 70–80%, and recovery has been extremely slow. With many children now living and studying abroad, publishers face a much smaller audience, which inevitably means smaller print runs and fewer production opportunities.
The industry is also dealing with staff shortages, missile attacks, and disrupted logistics. All of this has had a profound impact on children's publishing.
Children's books are unique products. They require carefully crafted stories, thoughtful illustrations, high production quality, and tactile design. They are more complex, more expensive, and more demanding to produce than many other types of books.
When the audience shrinks, creating books of this quality becomes even more difficult. Financial resources become more limited, and the market itself becomes smaller. That is why I consider the war to be the single greatest challenge facing our publishing industry today.
What trends do you currently see in Ukrainian children's publishing? Have the interests of children, parents, and educators changed in recent years?
I don't see any fundamentally new trends apart from the obvious impact of the war.
A whole new category of children's books has emerged—stories about displacement, families separated by war, children whose parents serve on the front line, evacuation, losing one's home, and even animals escaping conflict.
Beyond that, I don't see major shifts specific to children's literature. These changes affect the publishing market as a whole.
Digitalization has certainly changed reading habits, but this is not a recent trend. It has been evolving for more than a decade. Since the last major surge in children's enthusiasm for printed books—often associated with the Harry Potter era—digital platforms have continued to reshape how young people consume stories.
What can the publishing community do today to support children's language development, literacy, and reading culture?
The publishing industry's primary responsibility is quality.
Publishers should focus on creating high-quality books, whether they are printed or digital.
Of course, there is room for audiobooks, interactive formats, and gamification of reading, and all of these are already developing. However, I do not believe that promoting reading culture is primarily the publishing industry's responsibility.
Publishing is still a business. Publishers acquire rights, produce quality books, and deliver them to readers.
Encouraging reading habits and developing educational practices is the responsibility of educators, civil society organizations, and public institutions. Publishers are an important part of this process, but they are only one part.
Which reading practices are most effective for preschool children today?
Reading aloud.
Parents, teachers, caregivers, or older siblings should regularly read to children. Consistency matters. Making reading part of a daily routine—before bedtime or during a dedicated reading time—is especially valuable.
It is also important for books to be present throughout a child's everyday environment. If children are coloring pictures, perhaps the rabbit and hedgehog in the picture are reading a book. If they are learning numbers, the counting exercise can come from a storybook.
When books become a familiar visual element in a child's world, they naturally become part of the child's understanding of life.
From there, every child develops differently. Some will grow to love reading independently, while others may not. But adults can create an environment where reading feels natural.
What does effective cooperation between publishers, educators, and parents look like?
It requires genuine collaboration.
Parents and educators should communicate children's needs, and publishers should listen and respond by creating stories and formats that engage young readers.
We also need shared spaces where everyone involved can exchange ideas—reading clubs, professional communities, and similar initiatives. Developing a reading culture is a shared responsibility.
Should reading be promoted as systematically as sports or healthy lifestyles?
Absolutely.
Especially in Ukraine, where education faces enormous challenges.
If we want future engineers, researchers, scientists, and innovators, we need to begin with literacy.
Reading is not simply the ability to recognize words. It is understanding, interpreting, remembering, and applying information.
That is why promoting reading should be viewed as equally important as promoting physical activity or healthy living.
Do books really compete with digital devices?
Not exactly.
Most people are visual learners. That is why audiobooks, although growing in popularity, still represent only a relatively small share of the market.
The real competition is not between books and devices. It is between different forms of reading.
Today people spend a great deal of time reading on social media—Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Instagram, and other platforms.
Audiobooks are not competitors to books. They are simply another way of experiencing stories and information.
If you could launch one national initiative to encourage children's reading, what would it be?
Reading aloud to children.
I strongly believe this initiative deserves national attention.
When parents regularly read to their children before bedtime, they strengthen family relationships, create meaningful conversations, and support children's emotional and cognitive development.
Too often people speak about family values while overlooking simple everyday habits—asking children about their day, talking together, or reading a story before bed.
Yet these small daily rituals help children grow and strengthen family bonds at the same time.
This initiative originally came to Poland from the United States, and I believe Ukraine would benefit greatly from embracing it more widely. As an Association, we plan to continue promoting this idea, and personally I will continue speaking about it whenever I can.
How do you see the future of Ukrainian children's books over the next decade?
Ukraine has outstanding publishers.
Our authors, illustrators, and publishers regularly receive international recognition, and this is an industry our country should be proud of.
Publishing is one of Ukraine's success stories. We should be just as proud of publishers like A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA and Ranok as we are of other national achievements.
Our children's books meet international standards. Many titles available in Ukrainian bookstores are every bit as impressive as those found anywhere in the world.
Globalization will undoubtedly influence the industry. Ukrainian illustrators, designers, and authors will increasingly work for international audiences, while global publishing companies may become more active in Ukraine.
At the same time, another scenario is possible: stronger support for domestic publishers, similar to what we see in several European countries.
No one can say which path the industry will ultimately take. But I am confident that Ukrainian children's publishing has exceptional potential.
Different publishers also have different ambitions. Some hope to expand internationally, while others prefer to remain independent and continue building strong Ukrainian publishing houses. There is no single model for the future of the industry.
🎭 Beyond the Profession
At the end of each interview, we ask our guests a few personal questions that help us get to know them beyond their professional roles.
What was your favorite children's book, and why?
It's impossible for me to choose just one.
I read and reread the books of Vsevolod Nestaiko countless times, especially The Toreadors from Vasiukivka and The Land of Sunny Bunnies. Years later, I read them again with my own children, and we still have some of those books at home—some even in duplicate.
My favorite books changed as I grew older. I loved Tove Jansson's Moomin stories, adventure novels like Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, as well as books by Mykola Trublaini about Arctic expeditions.
There are also books I remember vividly even though I can no longer recall the author's name—or sometimes even the exact title. What has stayed with me is the feeling they left behind.
I still have my childhood Ukrainian edition of The Hobbit, which I bought during the Soviet era. I read it as a child without realizing it was only the beginning of a much larger story. Years later, after reading The Lord of the Rings, I found that old copy at home and thought, "Wow... I was reading Tolkien as a child without even knowing it."
What advice would you give your younger self?
Probably this:
"Everything will be okay. Just keep doing what you're doing."
I don't feel that there is anything I would want to change dramatically or avoid. So my advice would simply be: don't worry so much, keep moving forward, and trust that things will work out.
What might surprise our readers about you?
Perhaps the fact that I've been writing under a pseudonym for many years.
And I'd rather keep that mystery unsolved.
