About the book

The popular Slovenian writer Slavko Pregl is famous for his insightful humor that is not missing in this collection of fables in which the author toys with life’s wisdoms and human weaknesses. We meet a wise monkey, a sly cat, a chatty sparrow and all kinds of other animal characters. The witty fables are enriched with lively and “talkative” animal illustrations by Bojan Jurc. Appropriate for all young readers and those young by heart. Slavko Pregl is an author of youth literature, stories and fables, a publisher and an editor. He writes tales and short prose for the young and the adults alike. He publishes prose, fables, satirical and humoristic texts, and popular science works. He was born on September 9th, 1945 in Ljubljana. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana. He first worked at the publishing house Mladinska knjiga and later as an independent publisher, the director of EWO publishing house, self-employed in culture. Until recently, he was the president of the Reading Badge association and remains the president of the Slovenian writers society and the vice president of Forum 21. He began his journalistic and literary career in grammar school where he was active as the editor of the school paper, while he was busy writing the whole time as well. He wrote sketches, fables, stories and satires that were first published in magazines and papers and for which he also received the greatest recognition. In 1972, he received a “Srebrna ćivija” for his story Zadnja želja at the Yugoslavian festival of humor and satire in Šabac. At the Yugoslavian competition Radoje Domanovič in Belgrade in 1973, he won the third award for his story Razkošje v glavi. Later, In 1978, he won the second award for a satire at the competition organized by the daily Primorski dnevnik. Another satire won him the Grand prix Aleko award at an international competition in Sofia in 2003. In 1978, he was also awarded the Levstik award, the Večernica award for the book Srebro iz modre špilje in 2004, and the Desetnica award for Usodni telefon in 2004. His works are characterized by his realistic style of writing. The language is appropriate for the child’s age, thus simple and amusing. He frequently uses funny phrases and dialogues, as well as many adjectives and numerals which enable him to describe the events, things, objects, scenes, etc. in a concise and witty manner. He mostly writes amusing and suspenseful tales of young people and their problems with the world of adults. His youth works are characterized by cheerfulness, merriness and humor. The titles standing out from his work are especially the stories about fun group adventures. Since he is not a fan of fake life, he never embellishes anything. His literary heroes are always based on real life. A frequently occurring subject in his youth literature is how parents or older people see the younger generation and what the relationship between parents and children is like. Slavko Pregl is motivated by the burning issue of children and the young with problems inside the family and society.