Ekaterina Murashova is a biologist and developmental psychologist, and now a winner of the Cherished Dream National Children’s Literary Award for her novel Guards of Anxiety* for teenagers.
The heroes of her book find themselves in a new school, where their classmates are united by some mysterious goal: they understand each other without words and call themselves the alarm guards. What is the alarm guard fighting for? The guys will have to figure out the secret of the 8th «A» and make a choice.
Psychologies: Did your experience as a biologist and psychologist help you in your work on a novel about teenagers?
Ekaterina Murashova: I remember how in the Sukhumi monkey nursery I observed how the grouping reaction occurs in teenage baboons. In the natural environment, a group of teenagers leave the herd, and they either die or conquer new territory. But in the nursery they have nowhere to go. To have fun, they take sticks, run after each other and beat rhythmically on the fence (very reminiscent of teenage music). Similarly, our teenagers have nowhere to go. And they go out into the yard, sit on a bench with a can of beer …
Or join the alarm guard, like the schoolboys in your book?
EM: It is important for adolescents at the age of 13-15 to get together (this is the same reaction of grouping), but it is not clear to them where to go then. They strive to become part of something larger than a separate «I». And this need is incredibly strong at this age, hence «Timur and his team» and other stories. There is a danger in this: in order to be in a team, teenagers are ready to gather under any slogan and will easily follow those who lead them. The question is, which way will they go?
Scooter, 368 pages, 257 rubles
* Author of books for parents «Children-«mattresses» and children-«catastrophes» and «To understand the child» (U-Factoria, 2006, 2007).