Safe Journey
14,60 € × 1 
The Magic Eyeglasses
15,90 € × 1 Ukupno : 30,50 €
Language itself inspired this unusual illustrated book. On every page a different verb: a little poem about aall that flies,all that shivers,all that hurts,all that floats, all that whimpersetc. Sixty funny, extraordinary poems that can encourage every child to think about words, are accompanied with sixty abstract illustrations that express a chosen verb in a manner that somewhat resembles the praxes action and informal painting. The book is useful as educational tool, it served as a basis for a number of art workshops with children, it is genuinely close to the worlds of childhood and it enhances the practice of reading for pleasure.
Selected among 25 best designed Croatian books in 2018.
Age: 6-9
Book #3352
A child with a “slow parachute” jumps from the roof of his building and describes the balconies next to which she/he flies. She/he then climbs the stairs and informs us about the interior of the apartments and their occupants. Each of the tenants is unique in their own way: someone is obsessed with English breakfast, someone sleeps in a cage because he is convinced he turns into a bird during the night, someone lives in an elevator with a pet snake, someone makes mechanical animals, someone builds walls and someone tears them down…
Descriptions of the occupants of the crazy house are fanciful, vivid and amusing; the text also contains a discreet educational point: regardless of the harmless “madness” of each of the tenants, in general they respect each other, and all together form a harmonious whole. The “crazy house” thus becomes a symbol of possible coexistence, of individual freedom embedded in the community.
To the easy playfulness of the text corresponds the artistic style of the illustrator Venda Vernić, offers the young reader a kind of gallery through which one can move in two directions, up and down, finding on every page a visual surprise.
Book #3707
Illustrating a fable about a parrot run away from the ZOO who meets various animals and finds all of them for some reason ridiculous until a fox teaches it a lesson, the artist Ivana Pipal finds ingenious ways of representing basically the same situation: the parrot and another animal. Giving each protagonist mood and personality, and creating at the same time deeply pleasant green world of the woods, she turns the tale about understanding and accepting others into rich visual pleasure.
Book #3396
This haiku collection will enchant both nature lovers and budding poets. The spare, lyrical text describes a series of short vignettes, each of them taking place in a different kind of rain, from thunderstorms to falling flower petals. The poems—some serious, some gently humorous—depict scenes from all over the globe: a horse struggling to plow a field, a father changing a tire while his children play, and two friends making up after a fight.
With its majestic artwork, this introduction to a classic poetic form will inspire readers to write their own haiku as they experience the amazing world around them.
Telling a story about a girl obsessed with flying and her (almost) magical book, the author blends fiction with facts about three Croatian inventors. In a playful way he switches between worlds: following a detail in her garden – a ladybug, a butterfly, a star – Svjetlana slides into a moment in the life of the inventor she was reading about. Subtle changes in style mark every transition into the world of inventors’ drawings, imaginatively expanding the space of the girl’s home and family.
Book #3344
Kao što već njegov naslov sugerira, ovaj je strip album čitav sagrađen oko izmjene godišnjih doba te sitnih dogodovština koje se uz njih vežu. Njegovi protagonisti – hrvatskoj publici dobro poznata ali zagonetna Zlatka, ribolovac i svemirski putnik Key te njegov galeb Yek, prepuštaju se gradnji snjegovića zimi, novim ljubavima u proljeće, skokovima u more ljeti, melankoliji ujesen. Oko tih dobro poznatih motiva Krešimir Zimonić plete profinjenu lirsku mrežu, gotovo uvijek utemeljenu u sugestiji: on nudi tek fragment događaja, bljesak uvida u raspoložen ja likova, nekad ironične, a nekad gotovo filozofske autorske izjave. Time nastaje bogat tekstualni predložak koji nikako nije ograničen na izmjenu replika likova – u Zimonićevom albumu progovaraju razni glasovi: nekad prirodne pojave, nekad obijesni galeb, a nekad sam pripovjedač. Ništa manje virtuozno nije izveden ni likovni pandan takvoj spisateljskoj tehnici: Zimonić se igra različitim stilovima, od gotovo impresionističkih kolorističkih rješenja do kolaža i likovnih referenci na popularnu kulturu. Tako nastaje bogata cjelina nekonvencionalnog sadržaja u kojoj se neprimjetno pretapaju male avanture, lirska raspoloženja i apstraktna razmišljanja o vremenu.
Book #2923
Beatrice Masini and Gianni De Conno, the award-winning Italian tandem, communicate in this picture book the artistic and emotional experience of travelling. The combination of magnificent oneiric images and the poetic prose takes us on a journey into the unknown: sometimes the destination is known, and sometimes the trip is just aimless wandering; sometimes we encounter obstacles and surprises, sometimes “treasures we don’t know yet of.” Every journey is a unique experience; and the insights we gain, the feelings we go through, and the memories we create are its precious consequences. Attractive illustrations and suggestive short sentences stimulate imagination and their dreamy quality has won numerous readers; in 2018 Beatrice Masini and Gianni De Conno received the most prestigious prize in the field of children’s literature “SuperPremio Andersen”. For the great Gianni De Conno, this picture book marked the end of a life’s journey; it is the last and farewell gift he left us before his untimely death.
Book #3340
The heroes of this illustrated book are teddy bears who turn out to be incredibly lively pets, always looking for some kind of mischief. They steal pancakes, sing and swim; they meet other animals in the city park; in the summer they go to the seaside and they never-ever sleep their winter’s sleep. The teddy bears’ little adventures are presented as short messages that their owner sends to her friend, and these messages very often acquire a visual power and a narrative dynamic which resemble silent cinema sketches. Once the whole picture is put together, however, one realizes that, from message to message, the author has taught him some important things on friendship and freedom… The book was illustrated and graphically designed by the young artist Hana Vrca who gave it a specific visual coherence and quality.
Book #3368
As a paper boat is floating carelessly on a city fountain, it is suddenly stirred by something that fell into it. The intruder turns out to be a cockchafer that couldn’t learn to fly. The two gentle creatures – the little boat that could so easily sink and the little bug that doesn’t fly – very quickly become inseparable friends. While floating on the fountain, they protect each other from little dangers and explore their surroundings that seem marvelous to them: balloons fly over their heads, people come to the fountain to toss coins into it and dream of luck, fireflies come to light up the night. And when real peril arises, it turns out that the little boat and the cockchafer have, along their way, already made friends who are ardent to save them. Sanja Lovrenčić thus creates a lyrical story about fragileness and the magic that resides in the world’s details which is accompanied by aquarelle illustrations of an almost minimalist quality by Mingsheng Pi.
Book #3334
This story, written and illustrated by Croatian writer and visual artist Nikolina Manojlović Vračar, follows the youth of two sibling roosters Coco and Rico. These two heroes were born on a farm owned by two music-lovers, and enjoyed a careless youth among other animals. But one day they were kidnapped from their home by two criminals who decided to turn them info fighting roosters and to make them participate in illegal rooster fights. When the day came for Coco to fight Rico, they had to use all their cunningness and intelligence to turn the fight into a travesty, escape and find their way home. By telling this animal adventure story, Nikolina Manojlović Vračar reflects on friendship, loyalty and nonviolent ways to subvert and contest violent behavior.
Book #3332
The narrator of this story, who has always wanted to be (and always has been) a Dreambringer, grows as a character from page to page, and sometimes assumes almost cosmic dimensions. For he is the one who delivered dreams about the stars to the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia several thousand years ago — as well as some information to the thieves from the neighborhood last week. This Dreambringer is not perfect, he is so much overburdened with work that ”confusions may happen”, and sometimes he has to deliver a really scary dream. But some of the dreams from his luggage are really extraordinary: the number zero dreamed up by a Mayan priest and the recipe for ice cream that appeared in a dream an ancient chef; some strange signs from which the alphabet will emerge, but also a tender awakening love of a young girl… It seems, however, that it is not the dreamer who is responsible for the content of the dreams, but the dreamers themselves, who “dream beyond all rules”…
The imaginative world of Igor Rajki was turned into expressive paintings by the young artist Nikolina Žabčić; these are her first picture book illustrations.
Book #3709
Pepe is a very curious meerkat. He knew the animals and the plants, and everything that surrounded him and was within his reach, but it was not enough.
One day the Earth seemed too small for his great curiosity and a new world opened for him when he looked up at the sky.
The author tells us in this first book of the saga of Pepe, the meerkat, a tender story about the enigmatic universe of which we are all part.
A double debut: the renowned poet first time writing for children, a young artist first time illustrating a picture book. They tell a fairy tale about three brothers set to find a better place than their own, with subtle political subtext (there is a dragon at home who has to be dealt with). The illustrator finds original equivalents for all dimensions of the text, and manages even to imbed some citations from XX century art (Matisse, Hokney), thus enlarging the visual world of youngest readers.
Book #3346
“We, the Mice”, a new picture book by Pika Vončina, is a sequel to her series of picture books about a fantastic animal world. Four stories about a harmonious family of mice are told by Erik the Unstoppable, the mouse who got his nickname because he constantly asks curious questions. His family does not live in “holes” but in nice and comfy dwellings, eating a variety of fruits and vegetables (sometimes even cheese!), loving music and gardens…
The text is handwritten in large block letters, which allows younger children to read it on their own, and helps them as an additional motivation in the process of learning to read and write. The diversity of characters and settings stimulates the development of children’s imagination and deepens their perception and emotional intelligence.
Ages 4-7
In this extraordinary picture-book the story keeps returning to its beginning. At every page, Igor Rajki starts out with the classical formula “Once there was a…”, only to interrupt the narration and turn to something else. The little sketches created in this way as well as the reasons the author offers for never finishing any of his stories finally build up to a hilarious mosaic of anecdotes while constructing a somewhat nervous but highly entertaining narrative voice. The visual artist Krešimir Zimonić responded to the fragmentary narrative style by using techniques of collage which combine drawings, photographs, graffiti styled writings and “ready-made” visual material. Once is, for this reason, a thoroughly sketchy and incredibly rich little book.
