Tomas Dirgėla, Rytis Daukantas. Domas ir Tomas: YouTube kanalo byla (Domas and Tomas: The Case of the YouTube Star), Vilnius: Tyto Alba, 2023. – 176 p. English sample translation available

This is the twelfth book in the Domas and Tomas series. The author is famous for these detective stories about Domas and Tomas, who solve all kinds of cases while experiencing fun adventures and absurd situations. One of the author’s aims is to make children laugh. He has been successful at this since the very first book of the series, The Case of the Missing Broom, where the young detectives of the Miestiečių school of Miestamiestis city, Domas and Tomas from class 4b, start looking for the janitor’s missing broom.
New cases are plentiful: each book of the series captures a new event at school and a new mystery which Domas and Tomas (later joined by Upė) end up cleverly solving. The detectives are not scared by anything, whether it’s a ghost or an inspection of cafeteria food. They even find the first Lithuanian book by Martynas Mažvydas, as well as a girl who has disappeared, and cats which have been stolen from an animal shelter. The heroes keep busy even during the summer holidays: they capture a bank thief. And what is to be done when the snow and presents disappear in the winter?… In Vilnius, the heroes are looking for the missing Gediminas Castle Tower. In the twelfth book, the school is thrilled to welcome a YouTube star Džėja. But then it turns out unfortunately that someone has hacked her YouTube channel. The author’s style is playful and vivid, keeping the readers on their toes right up until the final page.

Tomas Dirgėla (b. 1989) is a popular writer for children and young adults with more than 45 books to his name. He lives in Vilnius. Much loved by children readers, his books have been published with multiple reprints. Since 2016, he has been an independent professional writer. In 2018, he founded a writers’ music band called Knygų vaikai (The Book Children). Dirgėla’s books have been translated into 13 languages. He has won a number of prestigious awards, such as the Aldona Liobytė Award for the most significant debut of the year (2015), presented by the Lithuanian section of IBBY, the Children’s Literature Award (2022), and the Lithuanian section of IBBY Second Prize for the best children’s book of the year (2016).

Rytis Daukantas (b. 1980) is a writer and artist. He has collaborated with Tomas Dirgėla since 2016, when the first part of the Domas and Tomas series was published, until this latest, twelfth part. He also illustrated Dirgėla’s Dingęs gimtadienio tortas (The Missing Birthday Cake, 2021) and Vytautas Didysis. Valdove, gal asmenukę? (Vytautas The Great. A Selfie, Your Majesty?, 2022). Rytis Daukantas is also the author of the children’s book series Lietuvos milžinai iš arti (Lithuanian Giants Up Close); Simonas Daukantas – vargo pelė (Simonas Daukantas – The Busy Bee, 2009); and Jonas Basanavičius – barzdota varna (Jonas Basanavičius – The Bearded Crow, 2009).
Illustrator’s portfolio: https://www.behance.net/karikatura?locale=fi_FI

Contact for rights: auguste@tytoalba.lt

Contact for samples: kotryna.pranckunaite@lithuanianculture.lt