Mukha Renata Grigoryevna - a special name in Russian literature for children. The poetess subtly felt her native language and masterfully owned it. The writer called herself a translator of animal languages, as well as vegetables, fruits, rains and galoshes. The "translations" of Renata Grigoryevna are full of optimism. Her poems appeal to both adults and young readers. The writer herself did not consider her children's creativity strictly.
The childhood and youth of the poetess
On the last day of January 1933, Renata Mucha was born in the family of a military man and teacher. The biography of the writer is still not completely known, and information about her life is just beginning to be collected by fans and friends. The parents of the poetess then lived in Odessa. Mother - Shekhtman Alexandra Solomonovna, was born there in 1913. She graduated from Kharkov University (at that time it had a different name, and in the 60s passed into a different status). After the war, she headed one of the departments there. The poet’s father is Grigory Gerasimovich Mukha, a Ukrainian, born in the village of Bolshoi Sorochintsy of the Poltava province. He was a military man and served in Odessa. He has military awards for participating in the Second World War.
Renata Grigoryevna spent her early childhood in a multilingual environment. In the courtyard where her family lived, one could meet Jews, and Germans, and Greeks, and Russians, and Ukrainians. Perhaps this contributed to the development of the poet's great interest in foreign languages.
When Renate was 5 years old, her parents divorced. The girl stayed with her mother.
During the war years the family moved to Tashkent. And father goes to the front. There is a touching memory in the retelling of the writer Marina Boroditskaya about how little Renata managed to take 2 books with her when moving: Taras Bulba and The Adventures of Karik and Vali, which were memorized while lying under the bed during the years of evacuation. They were her treasure and salvation in difficult times.
In 1944, Mukha Renata Grigoryevna returned to Kharkov, where he was finishing the 116th female gymnasium. The question of entering the institute began to be decided.
By that time, the writer was already fluent in German, she knew Yiddish and a little French (she studied it at school). Young Renata chose Kharkov University (English department, Faculty of Foreign Languages) for admission, which she successfully graduated from, remaining there to work as an assistant professor of the Department of English Philology. In the 50s, under the pseudonym Natasha, she even broadcast on English television in Kharkov television.
The methodology of learning the language - "Fairytale English"
After graduating from the university, Mukha Renata Grigoryevna defended her doctorate and wrote about 40 scientific papers. She came up with an original methodology for learning English - “Fairytale English”. Its essence is to learn through fairy tales, magical and entertaining stories - everything that gives the student joy and arouses his interest. The criteria for choosing stories for the lessons are:
- natural, catchy and rhythmic language;
- 70-75% of the words known to the student, so as not to be distracted from the narrative, explaining new expressions;
- the presence of many repetitions;
- the presence of dialogs with short remarks;
- dynamism (preference for action over description);
- the presence of a poem or song, under which you can do physical exercises;
- Not too long story text, which can be completed in one lesson;
- not too archaic texts (it is better to use modern texts with pictures).
In this technique, it is very important not to read the story, but to speak it with the involvement of students in the dialogue process.
Since 1990, Mukha Renata Grigoryevna talked a lot about her technique in England, Germany, and the USA. Moreover, in these cases, the Russian language was fabulous.
First poems
Mucha Renata Georgievna did not write poetry either in childhood or in youth. The first poem that has become famous is the story of an unfortunate snake who was bitten by a wasp.
This little masterpiece in the 60s was heard by Vadim Levin, then a well-known children's poet. He learned that the author of the text is a professor at the Department of English Philology. Subsequently, these people formed an amazing tandem. They have published joint poetry collections more than once, admitting that they are very comfortable working together.
The exit of the collection of verses
The co-author of the first collection of poems by Renata Grigoryevna is Nina Voronel. He saw the light in 1968 in the publishing house "Kid" and was called "Trouble". Illustrations for it were made by Viktor Chizhikov (dad of the famous Olympic bear). Unfortunately, the book does not contain content with an exact indication of authorship, so it’s impossible to determine exactly who wrote what. The collection contains 8 poems, among them: "Wasp stung", "About the white horse and about the black horse", "Trouble".
Some works in the collection are found in later editions in an amended form. For example, a story about a horse and galoshes. It is not known who started this story: Vadim Levin or his co-author Renata Mucha. The verses are recognizable, they even shot the wonderful cartoon "The horse bought 4 galoshes."
Co-authored verses
After the first collection of works for almost 25 years, there is not a single author’s edition of the poetess named Renata Mucha. Poems are sometimes printed in periodicals: Literaturnaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ogonyok, and even in the Chicago newspaper Ku-ku.
Finally, in 1993, the publication "Two Elephants" published a collection of "About a stupid horse ...". On the cover 3 co-authors appear: Polly Cameron and the permanent duet of Levin and the Flies.
In 1994, the Enlightenment Publishing House published a collection of poems, Freaks. It includes poems by Russian poets, as well as translations of foreign ones, including the works of Renata Mukha. The compiler of the collection was Vadim Levin.
Relocation to Israel
In the mid-90s, the writer moved to Israel. She lives in the city of Be'er Sheva and continues to teach English to the Israelis at the University. Ben Gurion. Interestingly, when applying for a job, she was forbidden to tell students that she was connected with Russia.
Renata Grigoryevna is a member of the Union of Russian-speaking authors of Israel.
She is valued as a teacher and scientist.
In Israel, the writer met Mark Galesnik, who helps her publish the first author's collections.
Intravital Editions of Renata Mucha's Poems
- 1998 - "Hippopoea". The preface to the collection was written by Eduard Uspensky, who himself splendidly writes poetry about children. Afterword - Igor Guberman.
- 2001 - the collection “Miracles Happen in Life”.
- 2002 - “Disorders”.
- 2004 is the first collection published in Russia, “A Little About the Octopus”. This book is recommended by the Russian Library Association for reading to children.
- 2005 - “Once, maybe twice.”
- 2006 - “I am not sleeping here” with drawings by Tatyana Plotnikova.
- 2008 - “Wiki-Veki-Voki” - a collection of songs by Vladimir Zhivov on poems about children.
- 2009 - “Between Us” is the last collection released during the life of the poetess.
Readers of Renata Mucha today
Renata Grigoryevna died in 2009. Her books are published again and again, continuing to delight adults and children in different parts of the world. Among the recommendations for reading from young mothers, the name always sounds enthusiastic - Renata Mucha. "Lullaby" and her other poems are put to music by Sergey Nikitin.
I would like to end with the words of Yevgeny Yevtushenko: “The small but big poet Renata Mukha is worthy of her poems not only being included in school anthologies, but also accompanying us all in life, even graying but not aging in our souls, because we don’t have such verses will allow. "