Teacher Jelena Babić turned many years of work with Romani children into a pictorial Serbian-Romani dictionary intended for preschool children and younger elementary school students.
Namely, it often happens that in work with Romani children, we encounter problems in communication. This picture book is designed as a teaching tool that will help both teachers and children to learn the language.
The symbolic title of the book "On the Wings of the Wind" refers to a joint journey through knowledge of Roma children and the majority population.
The dictionary contains over 170 terms arranged in thematic units and verses at the beginning of each topic.
The idea creator and author of the dictionary is teacher Jelena Babić. Slavko Demirović is both a translator and co-author. The pedagogical assistant Goran Hasanović also took part in the translation.
Teacher Jelena continued her long-term cooperation with Ljiljana Sokolović with this book, for which teacher Ljiljana worked as a lecturer. Mila Joksimović and Milica Babić did the conceptual design of the cover.
National Council of the Roma National Minority approved funds for the book's printing within the project "MHEKU Ansambl Srce" and with a purpose to promote the Roma language and culture.
The publisher is the Rade Drainac National Library from Prokuplje.
The illustrations were made by elementary school students, both from Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro.
"This is the first dictionary of this kind, and we hope that it will help a lot in the work of both teachers and children," said teacher Jelena Babić.
