The rights are sold for Czech language. For negotiating rights for other languages please contact office@koinonia.ro (Emese Rostás-Péter)
Balázs Zágoni (1975) is a Hungarian writer living in Kolozsvár, Romania. His well-crafted and ingeniously plotted stories were first published in the children’s magazines Napsugár and Szivárvány. His first book came out in 2005, and soon became a favourite of many a child. The Book of Barni is about a real Kolozsvár four-year-old boy who visits interesting places, but has extraordinary adventures even at home, in the garden. 'He is just as real as you are. He is properly called Barnabás, but he is still little, and the name Barnabás would not be fitting for him. When he grows up, has a moustache, even a beard, has a wife and children, and drives a car (a train, rather), he will be called Barnabás. For the time being, he goes to nursery—nursery high. True, he is the smallest one in nursery high,” as Barni is introduced in the book, which, illustrated by Róza Reményi Schmal, has been reprinted three times.
In the second book called Barni in Berlin, Barni tells the story of his most exciting journey. Barni can now read, even maps, which he has loved, but can now interpret, too. He goes to Berlin along with Dad, who tells him: 'There is a metro station in Berlin called Alexanderplatz. Proper trains, metros and fast trains come and go from there side by side. Moreover, the station is not underground, not even at surface level, but in the air. It stands on pillars. Barni did not quite believe this, though Dad told him many stories about it. Perhaps Dad hadn’t seen it properly, or didn’t remember right. So he was eager to go Berlin, and see for himself whether Alexanderplatz is really underground, at the surface or in midair.'
In the second volume of the series, Barni’s second book, The Book of Twins, Barni is a schoolboy, has moved from their old flat, learnt to put his things in order, to asphalt, share chocolate equally, use the computer, build an aeroplane, and organize a revolution. But, most importantly, he has become a brother, and to not one but immediately two sisters, twins. In The Book of Twins, Barni gets to know his twin sisters Dorka and Hanna.
The latest Barni book is about three children. “Barni has become a big, serious kind of boy, but the nursery life of Dorka and Hanna is full of stories. The home, school, dream or underground adventures of the three children open up a cheerful and teeming world: it must be good to be a child at the Zágonis!” – as the expert on children’s literature, Andrea Lovász, put it.
The Barni series might keep track of their entire childhood, as each volume addresses a newer age group. “Balázs Zágoni knows some magic words that make the book fly into the hands of children, and keeps them there for over a hundred pages even. His stories edify in the most noble sense of the word: teaching children to live, be sensitive and sensible, exacting, curious, and parents to admire things of yesterday with the fresh eyes of their little ones,” as the editor-in-chief of Napsugár, Emese Zsigmond writes.
For negotiating rights please contact office@koinonia.ro (Emese Rostás-Péter)
Balázs Zágoni (1975) is a Hungarian writer living in Kolozsvár, Romania. His well-crafted and ingeniously plotted stories were first published in the children’s magazines Napsugár and Szivárvány. His first book came out in 2005, and soon became a favourite of many a child. The Book of Barni is about a real Kolozsvár four-year-old boy who visits interesting places, but has extraordinary adventures even at home, in the garden. 'He is just as real as you are. He is properly called Barnabás, but he is still little, and the name Barnabás would not be fitting for him. When he grows up, has a moustache, even a beard, has a wife and children, and drives a car (a train, rather), he will be called Barnabás. For the time being, he goes to nursery—nursery high. True, he is the smallest one in nursery high,” as Barni is introduced in the book, which, illustrated by Róza Reményi Schmal, has been reprinted three times.
In the second book called Barni in Berlin, Barni tells the story of his most exciting journey. Barni can now read, even maps, which he has loved, but can now interpret, too. He goes to Berlin along with Dad, who tells him: 'There is a metro station in Berlin called Alexanderplatz. Proper trains, metros and fast trains come and go from there side by side. Moreover, the station is not underground, not even at surface level, but in the air. It stands on pillars. Barni did not quite believe this, though Dad told him many stories about it. Perhaps Dad hadn’t seen it properly, or didn’t remember right. So he was eager to go Berlin, and see for himself whether Alexanderplatz is really underground, at the surface or in midair.'
In the second volume of the series, Barni’s second book, The Book of Twins, Barni is a schoolboy, has moved from their old flat, learnt to put his things in order, to asphalt, share chocolate equally, use the computer, build an aeroplane, and organize a revolution. But, most importantly, he has become a brother, and to not one but immediately two sisters, twins. In The Book of Twins, Barni gets to know his twin sisters Dorka and Hanna.
The latest Barni book is about three children. “Barni has become a big, serious kind of boy, but the nursery life of Dorka and Hanna is full of stories. The home, school, dream or underground adventures of the three children open up a cheerful and teeming world: it must be good to be a child at the Zágonis!” – as the expert on children’s literature, Andrea Lovász, put it.
The Barni series might keep track of their entire childhood, as each volume addresses a newer age group. “Balázs Zágoni knows some magic words that make the book fly into the hands of children, and keeps them there for over a hundred pages even. His stories edify in the most noble sense of the word: teaching children to live, be sensitive and sensible, exacting, curious, and parents to admire things of yesterday with the fresh eyes of their little ones,” as the editor-in-chief of Napsugár, Emese Zsigmond writes.
For negotiating rights please contact office@koinonia.ro (Emese Rostás-Péter)
