Slovakia
207
Bodnárová, Jana (text)
Bartusz, Juraj (illus.)
SakoHoess, Renata (transl.)
Čo som videla pri jazere : básničky, ktorým sa nechce rýmovaŮ
= Was ich am See zu sehen bekam : kleine Verse, die sich nicht reimen wollen (What I got to see at the lake : small verses that do
not rhyme)
Prešov : Baum, 2003. – [48] p.
ISBN 80-88987-66-9 b
(Slovak and German text)
Lake – Animals – Plants – Humans
This bilingual book written in lyrical prose aptly reflects the changing
atmospheres of lake Starnberg (Southern Germany). The imaginative descriptions
of author and illustrator revolve around natural phenomena, objects they have
found on the shore, animals that live in or around the lake, people they met
there or who have a special relationship to the lake. Readers will discover
fish and shells, ducks swimming on the lake, fireflies, a bug in a calyx,
music, a boat house, rain, fog hovering over the lake, or an angel who appears
above the water on Christmas Eve. The dynamic, monochrome blue watercolour
drawings underline the lake’s atmosphere evoked in the stories. (5+)
208
Droppa, Boris (text)
Štrelingerová, Petra (illus.)
Rak Ohnivák a straka bez zobáka (Fire-crab and the beakless magpie)
Bratislava : Perfekt, 2002. – [52] p.
ISBN 80-8046-218-6
Nonsense verse – Nature – Country life
This book gathers a humorous array of witty poems for children: poems about
stubborn dachshunds, fish in Slovak rivers, moonlight, the peacock with two
hundred eyes on its feathers, the magpie who loses its beak when it attempts
to eat the fire-crab, the dance of the purple heron, the turkey’s
‘song’, other animals, and nature in general. They all are a funny mirror
of country life in Slovakia. In his nonsense verses, which often have multiple
rhymes, the author plays with words, their sounds, and their meanings, and
gives them a philosophical touch. The illustrator’s energetic, bold
chalk-drawings formidably express the dynamism and vibrancy of the nature
poems. (5+)
209
Groch, Erik (text)
Pal'o,
L´uboslav
(illus.)
Tulácik a Klára (Stray and Klara)
Košice : Tichá Voda, [2002]. – 77 p.
(Knizná dielna Timotej)
ISBN 80-88849-33-0
Dog – Girl – Friendship
Little Klara, who lives alone in her house, stumbles across a small dog who
has lost his way in the forest. She takes him home with her and Stray decides
to stay. Since dogs and girls have different needs, they have to reach a few
compromises. Stray realises that a dog is not able to do everything a human
being does, that not all the things people do are necessarily fun, that dogs
can do a lot that humans can’t, and that they find different things funny.
The readers, too, might be inclined to question whether all the things people
usually consider so important do really mean so much – except for love, of
course. The lovingly designed book is accompanied by atmospheric watercolour
illustrations in shades of brown and green. (6+)