Manuel Šumberac

This special picturebook deals with the very difficult topic of death in childhood. The story features an angel called Barnabel who longs to become a guiding angel, but the older angels tell him he is too young and that he doesn’t yet understand the Dark Things. The image of a bridge is used to explain what happens after a child dies. A guiding angel meets them at the bridge, helps them across and relieves them of their Dark Things, which are feelings like pain and fear.

Loveday is a shapeshifter, both girl and hare. The gift runs in her family, who have always been leaders in the village of Penros. When a stranger arrives and seizes the Eldership, shapeshifting is outlawed and Loveday’s ability becomes a danger she must hide, running freely as Hare only at night with her fellow shapeshifter, the weasel-girl Vinegar. Spurred by other shapeshifting outcasts, Loveday discovers her unique power to commune with the moon. She must find the courage to defeat the usurping Elder and save her beloved Penros.

Loveday is a shapeshifter, both girl and hare. The gift runs in her family, who have always been leaders in the village of Penros. When a stranger arrives and seizes the Eldership, shapeshifting is outlawed and Loveday’s ability becomes a danger she must hide, running freely as Hare only at night with her fellow shapeshifter, the weasel-girl Vinegar. Spurred by other shapeshifting outcasts, Loveday discovers her unique power to commune with the moon and must find the courage to defeat the usurping Elder and save her beloved Penros.