Looking for a summertime middle grade adventure tale? Curious to learn about faraway places?  Then Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup* will be just the ticket for you!

Set in Kazakhstan, Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup is the opening book in a coming-of-age fantasy series set in today’s world but rooted in Kazakh mythology. The story begins when 12-year-old Batu—a modern-day kid with modern-day problems (a new baby in the family, bully at school)—accidentally summons Aspara, a 13-year-old warrior prince who had died 2500 years before. After Aspara persuades him to look for the Golden Cup, the two travel through time together to find the ancient talisman. As befits the genre, Batu meets with adventure after adventure, first only with Aspara and then joined by his friends. He survives meeting the Snake King, rescues his sister, searches for a giant eagle named Samruk, tracks a magic bear, and encounters the witch, Jeztyrnaq. Along the way, he finds out more about Aspara’s history and that of his own family, while gaining strength, valor, virtue, and self-knowledge.

Filled with fascinating details, thrilling battles and fearsome creatures, Batu is part of an admirable post-Glasnost effort to reclaim the Kazakh culture and language after the Soviet Union did its best to make them fade away. The first in a quartet of stories that were originally published in both Russian and Kazakh—a Turkic language rather than a Slavic one—the English-language translation ends with a useful glossary and a description of the dombyra, a two-stringed, guitar-like instrument featured in the story. 

Do Aspara, Batu, and his friends succeed in their quest for the Golden Cup?  Far be it for me to spoil the exciting conclusion for potential readers. In the meantime, let’s hope that the book succeeds on the world market so that English speakers will get a chance to read the next exciting installment!

Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup
Written by Zira Nauryzbai and Lilya Kalaus
Translated from the Russian by Shelley Fairweather-Vega
ISBN: 978-1662507021
August 1, 2023, Amazon Crossing Kids

Reviews: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus

Read a sample

Read my interview with translator Shelley Fairweather-Vega

You can buy a copy here** or find it at a library.

*Review copy provided by the publisher.

**Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 100 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the well-known Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year, which was nominated for a 2023 Will Eisner Comics Industry Award. Her translation of Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War. was a 2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, won the 2023 Mosaic Prize; and her translations of Magical History Tour: Vikings and of Magical History Tour: Gandhi were also 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists. Two more of her translations have received high accolades:Luisa: Now and Then(2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book) andCalifornia Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Awards). Recent translations include YA dystopian SF GN Gurvan: A Dream of Earth; Dagfrid, Viking Girl: No More Ear Buns; Dagrid: Viking Girl: Secret Viking Wishes; Magical History Tour: Samurai, Magical History Tour: Slavery; fantasy manga Bibi & Miyu #3, and LGBTQ manga Just Friends.