Serbian / Serbia
Choću kući!
(I want to go home!)
Petrović, Jasminka
(text)
Petrović, Ana
(illus.)
Beograd: Odiseja, 2016. – 87 p.
(Series: Biblioteka Prozna putovanja; 44)
ISBN 978-86-7720-142-5
Parents | Child
Reading age: 6+
White Ravens issue: 2017
Small publisher Odiseja is known in Serbia for its children’s book translations. Alongside classics from the likes of Astrid Lindgren, stars of contemporary children’s literature, such as Jaqueline Wilson, Jean-Claude Mourlevat, and Andreas Steinhöfel, are also represented. Here, Odiseja offers a gem of native Serbian children’s literature: young adult and children’s book author Jasminka Petrović (b. 1960). With illustrator Ana Petrović (b. 1989), she has written a very funny children’s book about what it would be like if one could exchange one’s parents. Young Nikola is annoyed by his parents’ constant “Do this” and “Leave that alone”, so he wants to find new parents on another planet. The selection is rather thin, though: Stiff robot parents and infantile mamas and papas who themselves want to be taken care of are not what Nikola had in mind. He returns home and – lo and behold – finds his own parental exemplars pretty okay!