In the county of rabbits the young reader will get to know the caring rabbit mom, dad who tells bedtime stories, their sons Eusebius the diary writer, Hugo the trumpet player, and other members of the large family, whose merry adventures are told in pictures interwoven with words. Texts by Pika Vončinahave an original ludic quality and often contain unobtrusive reflection about the natural world and human relations.
How to choose a profession? This fundamental question is treated in quite an unusual way when a girl decides to be “a girl from the circus” – and gives good reasons for her decision. The girl’s mother gives examples of professions with the same advantages, but Irene finds a way to follow her dream.
A Story about a Rabbit is one of the very few literary texts for children written by the famous German avant-garde artist Kurt Schwitters. In this playful short tale, the rabbit (who keeps on hopping around the corner even when there is no corner around) goes through a series of metamorphoses: he becomes a bird, a fish, a pig, a hippopotamus, a fly, and even a steamship. In this way, the author shows the road to maturity as a process of role playing; at the same time he explores the possibilities of one of the oldest motives of western art: the metamorphosis as a fundamental premise of artistic creation. Although able to provoke a grown-up reader to serious thought, Schwitters’ story, with its quick pace and fine humour, stays light and accessible to the youngest audience.
Age 4-7
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
Two towns on the two sides of a river – and an old bridge between them. When the bridge has to be repaired and repainted the citizens of the Blue Town want it to be blue, those from the Yellow Town want it to be yellow. There starts a peculiar quarrel, and develops out of proportion to its initial motive… until the day when the nature intervenes and reminds the citizens of both towns of the beauty of the multicoloured world.
(first edition : Alice Jeunesse, Belgium
White Ravens 2017)
In Cats, the author offers several connected tales: a brave cat Mortimer goes to the sea to see the great white shark (meeting on his way the dangerous mister Darkly); a company of wandering acrobat-cats falls apart because of a very strange problem; Zigfrid and Zelda, brother and sister, practice the skills of measuring and sewing in their own way; and cat chefs, Leonard and Edgar are making pancakes for all of them.
Age: 4-6
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
Emilija the sheep, Pika Vončina’s calm and pleasantly modest children’s book character, is well-loved in Croatia. The present volume, whose title promises an “Adventure”, is not concerned with a dangerous quest, though Emilija does fly with the wind and dive with the fish. Rather, the little sheep becomes acquainted with the elements, and learns about the special nature of the air, earth, water, and even the stars. This happy dream journey is narrated in a laconic style. Vončina’s characteristic whimsical typography and word play further add to this gentle little picture book, whose plot end where it began: as a good-night-story on the pillow (Age: 4+)
Picture book based on seashore debris used to evoke a setting and to provoke a story: shells and rubble become seashore, stones and wire become fish, and a little pebble-island becomes a witness of a fair tale that suddenly happens in the shallow water. The writer and the illustrator create an interplay between elements (water, stone, wind), transforming the ordinary set of things into a fantastic movement of awakened life. Fairy Tale of Shallow Waters served as a basis for a number of art workshops for preschool children.
Hilda’s Return to the Henhouse, is a sequel to The Voyage of Aunt Hilda. On a very dark night the travelling chicken finally comes home, and has to answer all sorts of questions about her journey. But the henhause is not exactly the same as it was when she left: the spirit of adventure, however modest, entered the minds of her chicken friends…
Age:4-6
Playing with the motives of Andersen’s “Little girl with the matches” Melita Kraus tells the story about a little she-dog named Lili, whose old master got ill and had to go to the hospital – on the Christmas Eve. The little dog is left alone and tries to win someone’s attention, but nobody cares for her. Very tired and hungry she rambles through the town, until she is too exhausted to continue. She lies down and sees – in a dream – her dog-parents. They give her advice – to knock at the door in front of which she is lying…
Simply told and emotional, ideal reading for the young children (+3).
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
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.
The picture book “Quince” tells a fantastic story about four friends who, during the summer holidays, cross the stream near the village where they live, although it’s forbidden. On the other side, however, they find neither “trolls, nor bogeymen, nor tusk-owners, nor dragon’s nests”; they encounter creatures that are almost the same as humans but live in forest dwellings. One of them, the boy Quince (with the word for apple in his name), will make friends with the four children and will reveal to them the secrets of the forests. The author of the text, Lana Momirski, intertwined a number of motives in this framework story: some of the friends will move to a bigger city after the school holidays, and the central heroine will have to learn to deal with parting; playing with Quince, children will learn to respect nature and all its creatures; the forest world will become a kind of refuge, but also a space from which the problems of reality and personal existence can be seen more clearly. Subtle watercolors, by Ivana Koren Madžarac and Lana Momirski, evoke to the young reader all the liveliness, warmth and diversity of this mysterious forest world.
Book #3342
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.
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
