Koota Ooma offers largest selection of Ukrainian books for children

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - Guess where the bookstore with the largest selection of Ukrainian books for children is located - in Kyiv or Lviv? Neither! It's right here in Toronto!

Toronto's Koota Ooma Bookstore has a list of 2,500 titles of books for children in Ukrainian and Mirka Werbowy-Onuch, who together with Tania Onyschuk, own the store, claim that no other children's bookstore or children's book department in the world can top this.

About 12 years ago, when Ms. Onyschuk was the principal of the Tsiopa Palijiw Ukrainian Cooperative School (today she heads the Ukrainian School Board of Toronto) she was ordering Ukrainian books for use in the school. "After a few years of ordering books, into which I had invested a fair amount of money, my basement was overflowing with books. I felt other schools could take advantage of my service and decided to expand my reach and needed a partner."

She teamed up with Ms. Onuch, a teacher of Ukrainian at the St. Sofia School in Mississauga, a full day school with a Ukrainian program, who was also interested in finding new and interesting materials for her Ukrainian language students.

At the beginning of their partnership, they rented a small storage place, then a bigger one, where they stored, packed and sorted the books until the hauling of boxes of books back and forth to the unheated unit became impractical.

And so, about three or four years ago, they rented their present premises - a small one-story building attached to a two-story office block. Located near Bloor West Village, their building houses a retail book outlet at the front, an office and a large storage area in the back. The choice of the name for the store - Koota Ooma - illustrates their attention to detail. According to some Ukrainian historians (or myth collectors), some 6,000 years ago peoples from what are now Ukrainian lands settled the Mesopotamia region where they founded cities, among which was Koota Ooma - a city of teachers.

The bookstore Koota Ooma caters to a variety of clients - schools, establishments and people interested in books for children in Ukrainian. "There are certain people who know about us, some from outside Toronto, who come and make large purchases. There are those who come regularly to find out if there is anything new - these are people who read with their children. Schools order from us, as well as stores from other cities. We go to book fairs at schools and we take part in the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival in August. We stopped taking part in seasonal bazaars at the churches because it was a big hassle lugging boxes of books up and down stairs. Only one church in Toronto has an elevator," Ms Onyschuk said.

The bookstore's website is now being developed and they hope to launch it by the end of the summer. "Entering the data is a lot of work - each book listing has 26 fields! We lack the resources to do this quickly," Ms Onyschuk explained.

About 95 percent of Koota Ooma's books are published in Ukraine. How are they found? There are two main processes, said Ms. Onyschuk. On trips to Ukraine, if they find an appropriate book published by a publisher not located in a metropolitan area and with whom it would be difficult to maintain contact, they purchase a larger number of copies, either take them back to Canada or leave them with one of their agents - one in Kyiv and another in Lviv - where the books are added to the next shipment. Otherwise, they usually purchase one copy of the book, take it back to Canada, look it over, discuss it with teachers and then order the appropriate number through their contacts.

Periodically, their agents in Lviv and Kyiv put together and send shipments of books by air. Last year, Ms. Onyschuk went to the Book Forum in Lviv and made many new contacts with publishers. "Such direct contacts," Ms. Onyschuk said, "are invaluable."

Do they pay a wholesale price to the publishers? Ms. Onyschuk explained that such a concept, analogous to North American publishers' 40 percent off to bookstores, does not exist in Ukraine. Each publisher has his own terms, and publishers' discounts can be based not only on the number of copies but the number of all titles ordered, as well as whether payment is in cash or term payable.

"When we decided to import books for a wider market," Ms. Onuch explained, "it was important that both of us taught in schools and were looking for Ukrainian teaching materials. We wanted books that were of a certain quality - both useful and attractive, which were interesting to children and young people, and where the language was accessible for our children. We don't just import a book because it's the fashion of the moment or it's the translation of a popular book - we search out books that meet our criteria. That is why our way of working is quite time consuming - we go over the books carefully."

Although the books are not inexpensive, they compare favorably with similar Canadian books, with hardcovers being even cheaper, Ms. Onyschuk explained. The main cost is transportation, which is often more than the cost of the book. There are booksellers, who bring in books from Ukraine in addition to other products they deal in, and they can offer their books more cheaply, but usually this is a one-off business - they bring in books when an opportunity develops but they are not book dealers, Ms. Onyschuk explained.

Other than books, the partners look for games - both teaching and recreational - which can also serve for learning and using the language. Sometimes these are not found in stores - for example, a popular magnetized alphabet was found at a bazaar. They are currently very interested in getting educational CDs - of which there are huge numbers in Russian. They have managed to obtain a few titles in Ukrainian. A two-part CD on the History of Ukraine (Dytiacha Kolektsia - Istoriya Ukrainy) that contains both lessons and assignments is being successfully used in some schools in Toronto.

What is their opinion of the Ukrainian-language book situation in Ukraine? Ms. Onyschuk said that although the distribution system of books is improving, books in Ukrainian come out in very small printings, normally 2,000 or 3,000 copies, not enough to fill the need. Why? Partly because people are afraid to make the necessary investment and partly due to the tradition that the state tells you how many to print.

Sometimes a publisher will decide to discontinue printing a book, even though it is attractive and popular. Publishers go bankrupt or sell out to other publishers who then continue to print the same title, but the publisher changes. Such things make it difficult to stay in contact. Many Ukrainian publishing houses also print Russian-language books - in Kyiv there are more Russian books for children than Ukrainian ones.

At the same time, there are publishers that are doing innovative things. For example, Makhaon made arrangements with Oxford and with Hayes (which produces the Osborne books) to get the Ukrainian rights to their illustrated books. Ranok in Kharkiv is an innovative publisher that produces teaching games, such as a book for young kids printed on heavy carton that comes apart into a puzzle.

According to Ms. Onyschuk, many publishers in Ukraine conduct their business very professionally - they understand that today book publishing is big business. Some, such as Ranok and Makhaon, branches of large corporations with the head office located in Moscow, make it difficult to judge what part of their production is books in Ukrainian. In the past few years publishers have been multiplying rapidly and there are many new publishing houses in eastern Ukraine.

There are also small enterprises that publish only five or six titles a year. In Ivano-Frankivsk, there is a woman who has developed a growing business in textile books for the very young; she does only one or two titles a year. Although there are more contemporary and interesting books today, Ms. Onyschuk estimates that, in the last five to six years, the actual number of books in Ukrainian has not grown, and possibly has gone down. There are very few Ukrainian authors who write books for children or teens with modern stories - by Grade 4 or 5 children no longer want to read fairy tales.

Asked what gives you then the most satisfaction in running Koota Ooma, Ms. Onuch answered quickly: returning buyers. "Over the years, a lot of families have grown up on our books. It is wonderful to see them return and seek out the next books. The kids come here, recognize books they have already read and look for others. You can see the development of their interest in books; it makes it doubly satisfying to see that it is Ukrainian books that they want to read. This excitement about Ukrainian books in children is extremely rewarding."

How is Koota Ooma different from other venues that sell Ukrainian children's books? "Together we have lots of experience with schools and working with children," Ms. Onyshcuk said. "We have taught for many years, we deal with children and young people through other activities, such as Plast. We can advise and provide the personal touch. We know our products very well, we can provide expertise; even our helpers know the products well. Without this, we would not be able to cope." "When people come here, they are usually overwhelmed by the number and choice of books and don't know where to begin, where to search," she continued. "This is what we provide that is different from other stores in Canada or the United States that have Ukrainian books. Anyone can order and import books, and even offer them at a lower price, but we have a huge selection and the knowledge of the product that is not available elsewhere."

"It is fun, but it's a lot of work," Ms. Onyschuk added.

Koota Ooma Ukrainian Books is open Thursdays, 2-7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. It is located at 55 Ormskirk Ave., Toronto, ON M6S 4V6; telephone, 416-762-2112; fax, 416-762-5611; e-mail, kootaooma@bellnet.ca; website, (under construction) www.kootaooma.com. For persons coming to Toronto, special arrangements to see the bookstore at other times can be made by sending an e-mail to kootaooma@bellnet.ca.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 25, 2006, No. 26, Vol. LXXIV

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