Q&A: The unexpected fame of a London children’s book author in Turkey [Video]

Vladimir Tumanov had no intention of becoming a beloved children’s author in Turkey.

The Western University professor of comparative literature wrote a book over 20 years ago to help his son with math. The fantasy fiction math tale Jayden’s Rescue is set up like a video game where a prisoner finds herself in a dungeon and has to make her way through each cell by solving math problems. She’s helped along the way by three child protagonists, which becomes an adventure to a summer camp, a remote island and beyond.

Jayden’s Rescue was first published by Scholastic in 2002 and was later translated into Turkish. Under the title Kraliçeyi Kurtarmak, the book became extremely popular among children in Turkey and Tumanov would go on to write six more books.

Tumanov is heading to Turkey for a book fair for the first time and stopped by CBC London to talk about …