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.
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)
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.
A girl riding a hare, a boy taking off to an adventure with a walking carob tree, a barge that riots against its crew, a little fawn adopted in an elfish family, a statue that decides to live near a pond, a star that falls from the sky before its time – Tamara Bakran’s stories are as varied as are her heroes. Little episodes from the everyday life of a child suddenly take a fantastic turn – a little girl crying that the water for her hair wash is too hot may summon a fire brigade, and a jump into a puddle may lead into a fairyland. The originality and merry rhythm of these stories catch the reader’s attention and offer the kind of pleasure that is the basic prerequisite for creation of a lasting interest in books and reading.
Age: 6-9
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
How Wang-Fo Was Saved is one of a very few texts for children written by the great French novelist Marguerite Yourcenar, here translated into Croatian for the first time. In her story, inspired by a Chinese legend, with a master painter as the main protagonist, Yourcenar is posing fundamental questions about humanity and art in a simple, yet striking manner. Searching for the aesthetic pleasure the perfect master Wang-Fo discards the material world and its acclaim. However, an encounter with the Emperor reminds him that works of art are always about the world and part of the world – even if they eventually succeed in becoming a world in their own right and a sort of sanctuary.
Age 12+
A collection of poems by a multimedia artist Nikolina Manojlović Vračar, inspired by everyday life of today’s children.
For school-age children (5.8 years)
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
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
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
Silly but Safe, a comic book of „practical tales“ for children, written and illustrated by Croatian artist Ivan Tudek, offers to the reader a handful of funny and edifying stories about friendship, mutual understanding and tolerance. The comic book format allowed Tudek to portrait human problems in dynamic and funny short cuts, and to develop a peculiar sort of goofiness through the visual aspect of his characters.
Age: 4-6
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
