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In:The Moving Canon(s) of Slavic Children’s Literature
Edited by Mateusz Swietlicki, Dorota Michułka and Zofia Zasacka
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 20] 2026
► pp. 71–96

Chapter 4
International children’s classics in Croatian schools

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Abstract
This chapter offers an overview of the international children’s classics included in elementary and middle-school curricula in Croatia in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The study is based on the available official lists of books recommended for individual reading issued by the educational authorities and on translation trends throughout the twentieth century as established in previous research. The analysis is divided into three periods marked by the different geopolitical and ideological status of Croatia: (1) after WWI; (2) after WWII until the proclamation of independence in 1991; and (3) after 1991. New canons of national children’s classics were established at the beginning of the second and third periods, but they had hardly any influence on the choice of favored international classics.
Article outline
  • After World War I and before the end of World War II (1918–1945)
  • The socialist period (1945–1990)
    • A comparison of reading lists in the second period
  • The period of national autonomy (since 1991)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (47)
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