Zala Publishing Foreign Rights
Dear publishers!
Below is a short catalogue of our picture books that are available for purchase to be translated and printed in your country. We will be happy to answer all of your enquiries via email.
The Slovenian Book Agency annually opens calls for Grants for the translation and publication of works by Slovenian authors, as well as call for Grants for printing expenses.
Please, refer to the following link:
https://booksfromslovenia.com/grants
Please have a look at our dPictus profile for previews and more details about our picture books.
https://dpictus.com/picturebooks/company/zalozba-zala-zala-publishing/
All titles

Title: Srečna žaba / The Happy Frog
Author: Mateja Črv Sužnik
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 270 x 210mm
Pages: 32 (plus endpapers)
ISBN: 9789617178258
Price: EUR 25,00
Publication: December 2023
Rights sold: Czech, Slovak
The Happy Frog
The Happy Frog is a tale about a frog who is delighted by a beautiful, sunny day. She screams and jumps carelessly around and, when she falls, she cries out loudly in pain. Her cry attracts the least expected animals, who come to help. But how will the day end?
This is a fun tale about joy, courage and friendship, but also about pain and loneliness.

Title: Kot hiša velika žaba / A Giant Frog’s Day Out
Author: Ana Duša
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 255 x 205mm
Pages: 40 (including endpapers)
ISBN: 9789617178173
Price: EUR 24,00
Publication: May 2023
Rights sold: Czech, Slovak
Awards: White Ravens 2024
A Giant Frog’s Day Out
It is a witty story about a little frog and its a beautiful day. Also, about the people, about big news, many rumours, and big expectations.
On one sunny morning, the frog decided that she would go on a trip and see the city. Word spread like the wind and got to the city. A big, huge, terrible frog was coming. People were initially scared, but then, hoping for a solemn and famous meeting with the famous frog, they rolled up their sleeves and cooked, decorated the city, and waited and waited…
White Ravens 2024

Hardback 270 x 210mm | 32pp | 2022
Title: Pogoltni zmaj / Gobbling Dragon
Author: Jure Preglau
Illustrator: Katerina Kalc
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 3 – 6 years
Format: Hardback
Size: 27 x 21mm
Pages: 32 (plus endpapers)
ISBN: 9789617178098
Price: EUR 23
Publication: November 2022
Rights available: World (Slovenian)
Gobblin Dragon
Once upon a time, kind people lived a peaceful life in a tiny village.
Until a dragon arrived one day…
A Dragon!
A terrifying, gobbling dragon.
Adults wring their hands and run home in fear.
Children tackle the problem smartly and live in peace and quiet again.

Hardback 270 x 210mm | 32pp | 2021
Title: Zojini zakladi / Zoya’s Treasures
Author: Cvetka Sokolov
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 270 x 210mm
Pages: 32 (including endpapers)
ISBN: 9789616994842
Price: EUR 23,00
Publication: August 2021
Rights available: World (All languages)
Zoja’s Treasures
Zoja the magpie collects everything that glitters, how could it be otherwise? When her nest becomes too small to house all the stuff, she has a brainwave: she will to open a jewellery shop.
What a treat for her and the other forest dwellers!
The jewellery shop quickly runs out of treasures, but luckily even more valuable treasures turn up for Zoja, treasures that shiny junk cannot compare to.
The picture book was created by two popular and acclaimed authors, the writer Cvetka Sokolov and the illustrator Marta Bartolj.
Author: Cvetka Sokolov
Cvetka Sokolov (1963) is a university teacher of English. Writing for children and adults is her pastime.
Her first text for a picture book, The Red House (2004), was published in 2004 and shortlisted for the Original Picture Book Award, as was Oh, Those Doctors, published in 2007. In 2013, her novel for young adults, What Doesn’t Kill You, was published and shortlisted for the Blue Bird Award. She also writes poetry and riddles for children. The recurring themes of her works for children are small joys that arise from everyday events, genuine human contact, and opening one’s eyes to the wonders of nature, while her novels for young adults usually deal with darker themes of physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
Her novel for children, Is Everything Really Going to Be All Right? (2019) was shortlisted for Desetnica, the Slovene Writers’ Association Prize, and included in International Youth Library’s The White Ravens 2020, an annual selection of outstanding books for children and young adults. Awards:
– The Red House (2004), shortlisted for the Original Picture Book Award
– Oh, Those Doctors (2007), shortlisted for the Original Picture Book Award
– Is Everything Really Going to Be All Right? (short YA novel, 2019) was shortlisted for Desetnica and included in International Youth Library’s The White Ravens 2020.
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Marta Bartolj was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, in 1979. After graduating from the Arthouse College of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, in 2011, she pursued her postgraduate master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, where she immersed herself in illustration. Marta loves to put on my illustrator’s shoes — they are the ones she feels most comfortable in.
Awards, special mentions:
2021 Finalist for the 55th Illustrators Exhibition Bologna.
2020 Finalist for the BIBF Ananas Illustration Awards/International Illustration Exhibition.
2020 The Golden Pear Label for the book “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2020 The White Ravens for “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2019 IBBY Silent Books Collection: from the world to Lampedusa and back – “Kje si?” on the Honour list 2019.
2019 The Golden Pear Label, “Kje si?”. 2019 The White Ravens, “Kje si?”.
2018 The nomination and Special prize for the book “Kje si?” (“Where are you?”) as an outstanding wordless picture book at the 2018 Kristina Brenkova Awards.
2016 UL ALUO Student’s Award for my Master’s Thesis. 2015 7th Brumen (shortlisted).

Hardback 270 x 210mm | 32pp |2021
Title: Ozimnica / Stores for the Winter
Author: Nina Mav Hrovat
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 270 x 210 mm
Pages: 32 (plus endpapers)
ISBN: 9789616994774
Price: EUR 22,00
Publication: February 2021
Rights available: World (All languages)
Nomination for the Kristina Brenkova Award 2021
Stores for the winter
A gentle and joyful story about work and friendship.
A squirrel gathers hazelnuts to stock up for the winter. The work is hard, so she asks her friends for help.
With their joint efforts, everything is easier.
Every day they work, have fun and snack on the hazelnuts they gather. The work is pleasant, but there are never any hazelnuts left for the winter.
Something will have to change. But what?
Will the squirrel manage to prepare for the winter?
Author: Nina Mav Hrovat
Nina Mav Hrovat is a teacher and heads a children’s kindergarten. As one of the founding members of the Mlin Radomlje Cultural Society (Kulturno društvo Mlin Radomlje) she has undertaken many roles – including acting, playwriting, directing and, from 2013–2017, as the society president. For several years, she headed the fairy-tale reading sessions at the Domžale Library, and it is her work with children and interest in fairy-tales that led her to her first authorial work. This was published in 2001 in the Ciciban and Cicido magazines, with some also in the Trobentica magazine.
Some of her work was published as picture books, and her debut fairy-tale The King Who Hated Tidying Up (O kralju, ki ni maral pospravljati) received an award for the most original Slovenian picture book in 2009.
In 2013, The Mouse that Gathered Courage (O miški, ki je zbirala pogum) fairy-tale was nominated for the Kristina Benkova Award, and in 2019 The Mouse Finds New Friends (Miška želi prijatelja) fairy tale was nominated for the Desetnica Award.
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Marta Bartolj was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, in 1979. After graduating from the Arthouse College of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, in 2011, she pursued her postgraduate master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, where she immersed herself in illustration. Marta loves to put on my illustrator’s shoes — they are the ones she feels most comfortable in.
Awards, special mentions:
2021 Finalist for the 55th Illustrators Exhibition Bologna.
2020 Finalist for the BIBF Ananas Illustration Awards/International Illustration Exhibition.
2020 The Golden Pear Label for the book “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2020 The White Ravens for “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2019 IBBY Silent Books Collection: from the world to Lampedusa and back – “Kje si?” on the Honour list 2019.
2019 The Golden Pear Label, “Kje si?”. 2019 The White Ravens, “Kje si?”.
2018 The nomination and Special prize for the book “Kje si?” (“Where are you?”) as an outstanding wordless picture book at the 2018 Kristina Brenkova Awards.
2016 UL ALUO Student’s Award for my Master’s Thesis. 2015 7th Brumen (shortlisted).

Hardback 270 x 230mm | 32pp |2020
Title: Kosmatice (Naš ljubi dom, kjer vse in vsak v miru živi, ljudje in cvetlice, medvedje in ptice …) / Kosmatice (Our sweet home, where deer, bees and flowers are alive at all hours)
Author: Milan Šelj
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Poetry for children
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 270 x 230mm
Pages: 32 (plus endpapers)
ISBN: 9789616994729
Price: EUR 21,99
Publication: August 2020
Rights available: World (All languages)
Kosmatice
Kosmatice is a place ‘where deer, bees and flowers are alive at all hours.’ In these poems the poet journeys back to his childhood, into those spaces and places where ‘poets bake the most delicious poems’ which even birds like to tweet while ‘they fly in the blue sky’. This is a collection of playful and wicked verse in rhyme, by turns serious and profound. Just like curious and laughing children who can be thoughtful and naughty at the same time.
Can you spot the redstart, a little bird who sings poetically on each and every page of Kosmatice? One only has to find it!
The poetry by a distinguished Slovenian poet Milan Šelj is brought vividly to life by an award-winning and much-loved illustrator Marta Bartolj.
Author: Milan Šelj
Milan Šelj is an acclaimed Slovenian poet and the author of four collections for adults. Kosmatice is his first book of poems for children. He lives and works in London and at Kosmatice in Slovenia; cooler months find him in a big city and warmer ones in an idyllic Karst village, just a few miles from the Italian border.
Illustrator: Marta Bartolj
Marta Bartolj was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, in 1979. After graduating from the Arthouse College of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, in 2011, she pursued her postgraduate master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, where she immersed herself in illustration. Marta loves to put on my illustrator’s shoes — they are the ones she feels most comfortable in.
Awards, special mentions:
2021 Finalist for the 55th Illustrators Exhibition Bologna.
2020 Finalist for the BIBF Ananas Illustration Awards/International Illustration Exhibition.
2020 The Golden Pear Label for the book “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2020 The White Ravens for “Will everything be all right?” (Cvetka Sokolov, Miš Publish.).
2019 IBBY Silent Books Collection: from the world to Lampedusa and back – “Kje si?” on the Honour list 2019.
2019 The Golden Pear Label, “Kje si?”. 2019 The White Ravens, “Kje si?”.
2018 The nomination and Special prize for the book “Kje si?” (“Where are you?”) as an outstanding wordless picture book at the 2018 Kristina Brenkova Awards.
2016 UL ALUO Student’s Award for my Master’s Thesis. 2015 7th Brumen (shortlisted).

Hardback 290 x 230mm | 32pp | 2017
Title: Darilo / A Gift
Author: Andreja Gregorič
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 290 x 230mm
Pages: 32 (including endpapers)
ISBN: 9789616994224
Price: EUR 21,99
Publication: May 2017
Rights available: World (All languages) – with some exclusions
A Gift
Little Mimi does not know what to do with herself. As her gaze wanders through the window a city hubbub starts to make her curious.
Take a walk with her along small streets and lively alleys to explore what marvellous things they are hiding. And find those corners where curious Mimi learns, step by step, what the most beautiful and most important gift is.
Or there is even more important one: a very young girl, who can share all the joy of life and all the hustle and bustle of a city with her grandma, who can not walk around anymore.
Andreja Gregorič is a fine artist and illustrator. Her work has been exhibited on biennales of illustrations in Bratislava, Belgrade et al.
Picture books with her artwork have already reached England, Portugal and Brazil.
Illustrator: Andreja Gregorič
Andreja Gregorič is fine artist and illustrator. Her work has been exhibited on biennales of illustrations in Bratislava, Belgrade et al. Picture books with her art work have already reached England, Portugal and Brazil. Award A book with her illustrations was also awarded by Slovene Writers’ Association with Desetnica 2010 Award for the best Slovenian children’s book of the year.

Hardback 270 x 210mm | 32pp | 2019
Title: Ko hiše zaplešejo / When Houses Start to Dance
Author: Ida Mlakar Črnič
Illustrator: Dunja Jogan
Company: Založba Zala / Zala Publishing
Country: Slovenia
Category: Fiction
Age: 4+ years
Format: Hardback
Size: 270 x 210mm
Pages: 32 (including endpapers)
ISBN: 9789616994545
Price: EUR 21.99
Publication: April 2019
Rights available: World (All languages)
When Houses Start to Dance
When Houses Start to Dance is a joyful picture book. Desire and hearts awaken with the first breath of spring and no one can say they didn’t hear a whisper in their soul, an itch in their feet. It is a tale of houses and people. About a town, where nothing is built only of stone and nothing ever changes. The moon or the murmur of the wind, a fresh morning … anything can move, start to dance, change for the better and become good.
The author of the story Ko hiše zaplešejo / When Houses Start to Dance Ida Mlakar Črnič is a librarian and story teller. Among her best known picture books are Cipercoperček / Magic Spells (2012), a series of picture books about Bibi and Gusti, and O kravi, ki je lajala v luno / The Cow that Barked at the Moon, illustrated by Peter Škerl (2015), which won Kristina Brenkova award for the best Slovenian original picture book and is included in the White Ravens Catalogue.
The story Ko hiše zaplešejo / When Houses Start to Dance was illustrated by Dunja Jogan who has been exhibiting her work for several years, leads fairy tale workshops for children and regularly contributes illustrations to the children’s magazine Galeb. Dunja illustrated Slon na drevesu / An Elephant on a Tree which was nominated for the Kristina Brenkova award for the best Slovenian original picture book in 2015, and published her first picture book Srečkov kovček / Srečko’s Suitcase in 2017.
Author: Ida Mlakar
Ida Mlakar (1956, Kranj) is an acclaimed and beloved writer and narrator of fairy tales. At present, she works in the youth department of the public library in Ljubljana where she organizes readings for children and many other programs. In her free time, she loves writing stories. She describes human relations and emotions so her stories touch (young) readers and overwhelm children and adults as well.
Achievements — The White Ravens Catalogue, 2016 (The Cow That Barked at the Moon)
Awards in the field of children’s literature — The Kristina Brenkova Award, 2016 (The Cow That Barked at the Moon) Nominations in the field of children’s literature — The Golden Pear Rating, 2007, 2011, 2016 (The Cow That Barked at the Moon) — The Kristina Brenkova Award, 2007, 2009, 2011.
Illustrator: Dunja Jogan
Illustrator and graphic designer, she studied in Urbino, Italy. Later she perfected her skills in illustration and art in Germany, England, Austria, and Italy. She has been living for several years in Rome, where she collaborated with different graphic design and advertising companies, she also collaborated with private and institutional realities Ferrara, Torino, Milan and Paris. She worked for different customers: Bertolli, Molinari, Ferrarelle, Nastro Azzurro, Ferrero, Martini, Trenitalia, Wind, Indosuez, Multithematic, Fao and others. Her illustrations have been published in different books and magazines, in Italy and abroad.
Awards: In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 was been selected for the Annual of the Italian Illustrators.
In 2015 her book The Elephant tree was nominated for the best book in Slovenia.
2019 PEN translates Award for the picture book Felix After the Rain (originally published as Srečkov kovček by Zala Publishing, Slovenia, 2017, in 2020 published by Tiny Owl, and translated by Olivia Hellewell, Great Britain).