Buy Book "Ivan Syla. Incredible adventures" in Ukrainian

“The Incredible Adventures of Ivan Syla is an adventure story about a famous strongman from Zakarpattia who conquered the whole world with his abilities. He is an ordinary young man who comes from a Verkhovyna village to the city, where all his incredible adventures begin.

This is a powerful motivational book for children and adults. At first, Ivan was called a “hillbilly,” followed, envied, and obstructed, but he did not give up – he bent iron, just like his rivals. His strength made miracles that the human brain cannot imagine. He was welcomed in capitals, towns, and cities.

His greatest strength was not his muscles, but his friends – sincere and loyal. Some of them were barefoot and plain-haired, but their faith and support were much more precious than their clothes. They were the ones who inspired Ivan.

Charlie Chaplin said: “Simplicity is a hard thing to come by”. Ivan possessed this “difficult thing”. This is very valuable, because all kinds of braggarts, even talented ones, are worth absolutely nothing without natural simplicity. It was the sincerity and simplicity of the Force that always helped him win new victories.

Despite the circus tours, newspaper articles, posters, and applause, he remembered his Verkhovyna village. He had seen almost the whole world, but no city sidewalk could replace the usual mountain playa.

It is worth mentioning the humor in the book, which makes you smile or even laugh. You will also meet Virastiuk and Sumska on the pages of the book.

I advise you to read it!

I am very pleased that such books have recently begun to be published. Our country is rich in heroes. One of them is Ivan Kozhedub, or as he was often called Ivan the Strong. He was once the strongest man in the world. He wrestled and no one could defeat him, he was so strong. He was also a sincere patriot. He would not trade his country for bags of money. For a long time, he fought in exhibition matches in America. As a result, he had a huge amount of money in his bank account at the time. However, the American authorities did not want to part with the Ukrainian hero so easily, so they agreed to give him the money on the condition that he would take American citizenship. However, Ivan did not want to betray his country, so he returned to his native land without the money. He is an example of courage, honesty and patriotism, so I am glad that children will be able to read a book about such an outstanding person. I think many children will be inspired by the book. I hope that such books about Ukrainian heroes will continue to be published. Because I want children to know the heroes of their country. I also want to note that I liked the design of the book. I was especially pleased that it has a lot of pictures, because it is still a children’s book.

“The Incredible Adventures of Ivan Syla is one of the most interesting works by contemporary Ukrainian writer and journalist Oleksandr Havrosh. The story is based on the biography of a real person, the Ukrainian strongman Ivan Firtsak, known worldwide under the nickname Croton, who became the prototype of Ivan Strong. But, of course, this hero’s real life did not include many of the characters and conflicts invented by the author for the children’s story.

“The Incredible Adventures of Ivan the Strong” teaches readers about strength and indomitable spirit, courage, patriotism, and perseverance. The protagonist, Ivan Syla himself, confidently overcomes all obstacles on his life’s path, while remaining a noble, honest and decent person. He is a hard worker, boldly learns new things and does not forget old friends, even after gaining fame. So, the idea of this work is to teach children to be a kind and sincere person, to remain themselves and to be proud of the heroes of their native land.

To make reading this story fun, easy and interesting for children, it contains many unusual, dynamic adventures and a clear division of characters into “light and dark sides”. The book is complemented by a beautiful hardcover design and illustrations that are quite interesting to look at, even though they are in black and white.

Although this story is included in the 7th grade Ukrainian literature program, I think it would be appropriate for younger children as well. Somewhere, perhaps, between 6 and 12 years old. Personally, I would love to read something like this in the 4th or 5th grade.

After reading this work, I would advise you to watch the feature film based on it (by the way, the illustrations for the book are taken from it). It is easy to find on YouTube under the same name. But the movie contains many details and scenes that differ from the original. So don’t use the movie as a basis, but order the book from the Yakaboo online store:-) I buy a lot of literature from them all the time. Everything always arrives on time, in perfect condition and undamaged. Choose this store – you won’t regret it!

Apparently, when he arrived in the capital, a village boy named Ivan, a strongman, did not think that in a while he would become a champion of the republic, a national hero, and later worthy of the title of the strongest man in the world. Throughout the book, the author portrays Strongman as an honest, noble, diligent, and sincere man who cares not only about himself, but is also concerned about animal abuse, social injustice, and many other issues that are important to humanity. He is compassionate to others and incredibly “simple” in the sense that even after meeting Dr. Bryakus and working with him, he still did not quit his job as a loader at the train station. From the outside, it seemed to me that the whole life of the protagonist, as described by Oleksandr Havrosh, was just a coincidence of random circumstances (it is not for nothing that O. Havrosh insists that this work is a children’s fairy tale). But we should not forget the fact that the famous power athlete Ivan Firtsak became the prototype of the main character of this fiction story “The Incredible Adventures of Ivan Syla, the Strongest Man in the World.” Of course, this book is not biographical (if someone wants to learn about the real life of Ivan Firtsak, I recommend reading the documentary novel “In Search of Ivan Strong” by Oleksandr Havrosh), but we cannot deny that this is indeed a work about the real life of a once-existing person (with slightly embellished details and fictional characters – it is still a work of fiction).

It’s no secret that today’s children are well aware of foreign superheroes, but they know almost nothing about Ukrainian heroes. Journalist and writer Oleksandr Havrosh set out to fill this unfortunate gap, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine embraced the idea and gladly added The Incredible Adventures of Ivan the Strong to the list of required reading for 7th grade students.

Introducing modern schoolchildren to the real-life Ukrainian strongman Ivan Firtsak, the world-famous hero Croton, is a great idea. And for that alone, we should thank the writer. The protagonist is our variation on the theme of the “Hollywood dream” coming true. An ordinary village boy with no connections and no money comes to a big city and, despite the difficult life circumstances, becomes first a champion and then a famous strongman in Europe. And of course, he finds the love of his life. Isn’t that a role model?

And children love this story with a happy ending. It is this attempt to “please” such a demanding children’s audience that to some extent played a cruel joke on Oleksandr Havrosh. Indeed, modern schoolchildren don’t like lengthy descriptions and boring character discussions. They want action from the first to the last page, otherwise they simply won’t read the book. Perhaps this is why the characters in the story are superficially written, completely devoid of reflection, and in some cases even caricatured, such as Ivan, who constantly mentions “mom’s dumplings.”

The writer also deviates from the story to please the audience, replacing real events with fictional ones and adding characters who never existed. No doubt, this makes the story more interesting. However, if you want to write about a Ukrainian hero of the past, you should hardly deviate from the principle of historicism. Moreover, in Ukraine, both before and now, little is known about Ivan Firtsak, and readers take everything at face value.

Thus, The Incredible Adventures of Ivan Syla is an “easy” story for schoolchildren (and not only) that has some flaws. However, the work evokes a sense of pride in our past, gives young readers inspiration and faith in their own strength, and simply entertains, which should certainly be considered among the virtues of Oleksandr Havrosh’s novel.