It Was Like This... Thirty years have passed since Éva Janikovszky wrote Az úgy
volt? The coin-operated phone-box in the street is no longer an excuse for a
thirteen-year-old boy to slip out of his apartment. The international scouting
movement has taken the place of Hungary?s ?pioneer? movement. At the 1933 Boy
Scout World Jamboree in Hungary Lord Baden-Powell announced, I want to see men
of all countries at peace with each other. You are the future men of your
countries, so be friends!? and urged the boys to swap addresses and become
pen-friends. Our teenage hero tries both of these things. He also tries skating,
lying to his girl-friend, planting trees and shrubs in the park, all with
varying degrees of success. Most of all, he tries to understand the world around
him, dominated by adults who are his own and his friends? parents, relatives and
teachers. Essentially he is no different from today?s teenagers with their
mobile phones, MP4s and computers. That is why Éva Janikovszky is timeless: she
could see into her own child as he grew, implant herself in his thoughts, and
make them universal and ageless. This is why all these decades later young
adolescents (not to mention their parents!) will be enthralled by this, the
latest of Móra Publishing House?s English translations of Éva Janikovszky?s
(semi-)fiction for children.