An unseen CD-ROM textbook

DIM ZUPAN, JELKA GODEC SCHMIDT AND VILJENKA JALOVEC ARE THIS YEAR’S LEVSTIKOVCI

Last night in Ljubljana, for the forty-sixth time in a row, the Mladinska knjiga publishing house presented the Levstik Awards intended for original literary works and illustrations intended for children.

In the first category, for original literature, the award went to the writer Dimo Zupan for the novel Flying Cats and Stories about Drekec Pekec and Pukec Smukec. According to the jury that decided on the winner of the award, Zupan testifies to his exceptional writing condition, an excellent look at life, as perceived by today’s young people, and an original sense of humor. “His stories, heroes and destinies also embody more serious and in-depth features of youth that go beyond the time limits in which narratives take place. All this is especially true for the novel Flying Cats, unencumbered by ideologies and direct upbringing, but with a prudent and convincing sequence from the lives of young people” the decision for Zupan is still justified by the jury, continuing that with Flying Cats the Slovenian youth literature got a long-awaited continuation of the fruitful and resounding tradition of modern novels for the growing youth.

For the original illustrations in the book Bisernica, Slovene Short Stories for children 1945-1995, the jury awarded the prize to the academic painter Jelka Godec Schmidt, because “with black and white illustrations she brought freshness and innovation to Slovene storytelling. With a rich selection of lines and patterns she dynamically enlivened the composition and introduced a warm and picturesque expression into it by asserting individual stories, while achieving a convincing unity of literary and artistic narrative “. According to the jury that chose Godec Schmidt, the texts of different authors and different contents from different periods were given to an exemplary and in-depth designer with a wide narrative artistic gift.

The people sitting in the jury, that decided on the Levstik Award for original material work, gave the award to the author of textbooks, Viljenka Jalovec, for the Wordbuilder on a CD-ROM. As it says in the justification of the decision, her electronic Wordbuilder is made with a subtle ear for the child’s personality and a thorough knowledge of the laws of literacy, and as such offers children the opportunity to actively learn voices and letters through computer games.