Abstract This article compares two works of children's literature by recent Ukrainian émigré authors in the United States: Lesia Khraplyva's Charodiine avto (The Magical Automobile; 1967) and Nataliia Iasinovska's Ukrainka po-amerykansky (The Ukrainian Girl, American Style; 2019). Drawing on diasporic fiction and memory studies, it argues that both authors portray next-generation Ukrainian American protagonists as role models for diasporic readers, deliberately downplaying cultural hybridity and the ambiguities of living between diaspora and host society—tropes commonly found in narratives about coming of age in the diaspora. Instead, their young protagonists embark on fantastic journeys into the Ukrainian past, reaffirming their sense of Ukrainianness and belonging to what Avishai Margalit (2009) calls a ‘community of memory and care.’ These texts invite readers to see Ukrainian heritage as relevant, familial, and vibrant, countering the forces of assimilation that shape next-generation Ukrainian American identities.
Daria Semenova (Sun,) studied this question.