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Svetlana Makarovic has special status in Slovene literature.
She is the greatest Slovene poet for adults. At the same time her prose, poetry, and drama make her one of the most prominent contemporary Slovene children's authors.
Svetlana Makarovic is the only Slovene author of children's literature to produce her own book series, Svetlanov&i (Svetlana's Picture Books, named after the author). These are published by Mladinska knjiga,* the foremost Slovene publishing house for children. Svetlana Makarovic's children's books include over sixty titles, from Mika spi (Mouse is sleeping), her first book, written in 1972, to the latest reprint of her children's poetry collection Guk na palici (Screech owl sitting on a stick, 2001). In addition, she has created many audiocassette recordings and a number of popular theater and puppet plays translated into many languages.
Animal Tales
The high point of this creative diversity are Makarovic's prose texts with surreal, magical elements, the fairy tale being definitely at the core of her oeuvre. The author is very fond of folk songs and tales and is also a great connoisseur of Slovene, Slavic, and world folklore. This is reflected in her literary characters that are often based on folktales (e.g., dwarves, tritons, fairies, and other mythological creatures).
The characters drawn from folklore are refashioned almost completely when appearing in the author's contemporary fairy tales; however, although they are often humorously demythologized and changed into modern figures, they are never deprived of their original magical quality, an enduring feature from their ancient folklore roots.
Most often, Makarovic's fairy tales feature animals. Examples of these animal fairy tales appear in her first book, Mika spi (1972), and in all her later short story collections. This animalist tendency is even evident in her book titles-Take zivalske (Such animal stories; Ljubljana: Borec, 1973). Glavni petelincek (Chief rooster, 1976), Pravljice iz made preje (Tales made of cat's yarn; Ljubljana: Borec, 1980), MaJa preja (Cat's yam; Ljubljana: Mladika, 1992), and Smetiscni muc in druge zgodbe (Scruffy cat and other stories, 1999).
Svetlana Makarovic is the traditional Slovene author of cat and mouse stories, although other animals or insects like mosquitoes, centipedes, and monkeys also appear as protagonists in her tales. Animal characters (and nature in general) are typically anthropomorphized; adult and childlike attitudes shine...