The book ‘Amina Turan in the Country of Nomads’ of the children's writer Zaure Turekhanova

The book ‘Amina Turan in the Country of Nomads’ was written by a young Qazaqstani writer Zaure Turekhanova. This is the first Qazaqstani fantasy novel for youth.

The author of the book in one of her interviews says that she did not plan her first book in the fantasy genre ‘Amina Turan in the Country of Nomads’ to publish. ‘I wrote that book, if I may say so, for myself, not thinking of publishing it. But then I took part in the literary contest, and that was only because it was anonymous’, says the young writer.

In 2011, Zaure Turekhanova participated in the national literary contest ‘Altyn Kalam’ (‘A Golden Pen’) and unexpectedly became the winner in the nomination ‘The Best Children's Literature’.

The first copy of the book was very large, over 400 pages. Then Sofia Raeva, an adviser to the Publishing House ‘Almatykitap Baspasy’, advised the writer to divide the books: as a result, two books were published under the headings ‘Amina Turan in the Country of Nomads’ and ‘Amina Turan on the Silk Road’. A series of books tells about the adventures of a girl from Almaty in the Country of Nomads, which is also inhabited by mythological creatures.

Zaure Turekhanova’s biggest dream is to familiarize readers from all over the world with the culture, traditions and tales of the Nomads of the Great Steppe through the series of adventures of Amina Turan.

The career of Zaure Turekhanova began relatively recently. She put aside the work of an international banker to develop children's literature in Qazaqstan. Today, Zaure Turekhanova is the winner of the independent literary contest ‘Altyn Kalam – 2014’ (‘A Golden Pen’), the winner of the prestigious literary award ‘Altyn Tobylgy – 2017’ (‘A Golden Spirea’) in the nomination ‘The Best Children's Literature of the Year’, as well as the author of two books relating to patriotic theme ‘My Kazakhstan’ of the Publishing House ‘Almatykytap Baspasy’ .

The first book of the children's series ‘Our favorite city Almaty’, dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the city, was published in 2016. The second book ‘The heart of our country is beautiful Astana’, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the capital of the Republic of Qazaqstan, was published in 2017. The total circulation of her books was more than 16,000 copies.

Zaure Turekhanova was born on August 14, 1984 in the city of Almaty. She began writing short essays and short stories at a young age. Zaure Turekhanova was the host of school concert programs, played the dombra (Qazaq national musical instument) in the school band, loved to recite poems, appeared on radio and television. Despite her desire to engage in creative work, on the advice of her parents, Zaure Turekhanova entered the Faculty of Economics at Al-Farabi Qazaq National University. Now she is a holder of a Master’s degree in Finance.

In 2013, Zaure Turekhanova decided to leave the financial sector and devote her time to the development of creativity and national children's literature. Zaure Turekhanova’s books talk about love to the Motherland, respect for elders and importance of knowledge. The purpose of the author is to make reading literature popular among children and teenagers of Qazaqstan.