The Child from the Sea

Loty Petrovits-Andrutsopulou - or simply Loty Petrovits - was born in Athens on 12 August 1937; “Loty” is a nick name for Penelope. She studied music, foreign languages, and literature, and then worked for bread winning with the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration for 27 years. She made her debut in children's literature in 1973. She has written 60 books, including 51 for young people, ranging from tales of fantasy to novels on contemporary issues, an anthology, three books for adults, and five books about children's literature. She has also illustrated several books with collages. Her long and daily contact with social problems, uprooted or homeless people, war victims, and especially children in need for almost three decades, as well as her own tragic experiences as a child during World War II became a well of inspiration for many of her books. Actually, empathy for those suffering, profound humanity, international understanding, care for children throughout the world are elements that can easily be traced in her work, even in those books of hers where humour prevails. In 1975, her acquaintance with IBBY's achievements and Jella Lepman's dream for a book-bridge building impressed her deeply and decisively. She immediately joined the Greek Section and devoted herself to its scope, first as a simple member, then as a member of the Section's Administrative Board (1978-1984), Secretary General (1984-1990, 1996-2000), IBBY Liaison Officer (1990-1996), and President (2000–2008). In May 2009, she was nominated Honorary President of IBBY Greece by its General Assembly. Loty Petrovits's work was soon and broadly recognized in her country. She has been awarded 21 awards and other distinctions, including the 1984 Academy of Athens Prize, which is the highest literary award for a distinguished author in Greece, and the 1999 State Prize for children's literature. In 1994 she was the Greek candidate for the H.C. Andersen Author’s Award. However, as Loty Petrovits often declares, the most precious prize for her is the warm acceptance of her books by children themselves. Indeed, she receives hundreds of letters from her young readers and she is welcome with enthusiasm when very often invited to schools all over the country or other meet-the-author events. Her books for children have been published in numerous editions and have sold more than one million copies in Greece, a particularly high number for a country of 10 million people, of whom 2 million are children up to 14. Works of Loty Petrovits are featured in anthologies and text books; they have also appeared in various children's magazines in Greece and other countries, have been broadcast or serialized for the TV in Greece and Cyprus, and have been translated into Japanese, Korean, English and Albanian. On the other hand, she has translated several books into Greek. Her work has been the subject of several M.A. and Ph.D. theses at Greek Universities. Loty Petrovits has also published five books about children's literature and many articles in Greek and foreign journals (in English, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Hebrew). She is co-founder and co-editor of the Greek quarterly Diadromes about children's literature, and was associate editor for Greece of Bookbird, from 1982 to 2004. From 1981 to 1988 she was editorial correspondent of Phaedrus International Annual of Children's Literature Research. From 1979 to 1981 she was co-editor of Helidonia, a children's magazine published by the Greek Ministry of Education. As a leading personality of children's literature in her country, Loty Petrovits has represented Greece in many national and international conferences on books for children, including IBBY Congresses from 1976 to 2002. In September 1998 she was elected member of the IBBY Executive Committee (1998-2000), and was re-elected for two more years in September 2000. She was also elected President of the Jury for the 2002 and 2003 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award. Loty Petrovits is also member of various other cultural societies, such as the Women's Literary Association, the National Society of Greek Authors, the Greek Society of Translators, etc. She lives in Athens, Greece, with her husband. They have a daughter, a son, and a granddaughter.