Slovenian / Slovenia
Skrivno društvo KRVZ
(KRVZ Secret Society)
Semenič, Simona
(text)
Komadina, Tanja
(illus.)
Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2020. – 309 p.
(Series: Modra ptica)
ISBN 978-961-01-5931-5
Adventure | Secret | City | Dragon | Metafiction
Reading age: 9+
White Ravens issue: 2020
This children’s book features a secret society of resourceful kids, a mysterious city map of Ljubljana, dragons, a rare dragon plant, quirky scientists, dodgy characters, teacher parents, a cheeky authorial voice, and a good deal of wordplay and stylistic elegance. In her children’s literary debut, illustrated by Tanja Komadina (b. 1976), Slovenian playwright Simona Semenič (b. 1975) spins a wild adventure yarn around how the children discover the secret of the map, the dragon plant, and the dragon itself. What’s more, she regularly jumps right in, engages with her readers, and points out that the story is nothing but a literary construction: In entertaining ways, she points out how the story is structured or how she left out certain plot elements only to describe them later. Thanks also to the spirited dialogues, written in the type of secret codes kids invent, “Skrivno društvo KRVZ”, which won the Modra Ptica Award, testifies to a great joy in story-invention. [KW]