Morea Banicevic

Morea Banicevic (Morea Banićević) (Rijeka, February 13, 1981), Croatian writer.
==Biography==
Morea Banicevic graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka, majoring in Croatian and English. Over the years, she has written a number of novels for children and young people, which are being published in Croatia and abroad.
==Literary work==
She started the series of novels with a trilogy: School library demon (Demon školske knjižnice), Doubles from Darkness (Dvojnici iz tame) and In the footsteps of Black Peter (Tragovima Crnog Petra). The novels have been printed in several editions, have been awarded multiple times and are enjoyed by readers. After the trilogy, her new novel for young people named The Sleepwalkers of Monterier is published.
The trilogy Demon-Doubles-Black Peter was the subject of the scientific paper called Old and New: Renewal of the Family Novel in the Trilogy by Morea Banićević (Tijana D. Tropin, Institute of Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia) published in Zmaj's Children's Games .
With her long-time editor and collaborator, Anita Peti-Stantić, she appears in a series of promotions and projects, the most prominent of which are Teachers in Focus, organized by the publishing house Ljevak .
Morea Banicevic is also the author of six texts in English with associated methodical tasks for encouraging reading comprehension, which are available on the teacher's repository of Profil Klett publishing house.
==Theme and style==
The theme of children's novels is a mix of detective, adventure, fantasy genre intertwined with elements of horror. These are novels intended for ages eight and up. The novels are characterized by humor, speed of narration, action tension and the attempt to establish a bond between reading and video games . The author believes that instead of excluding video games from children's lives, games should be made an extension of reading, since one does not exclude the other. The author's position is that the purpose of writing for children is to create literature that will be close to children in a way that attracts them to reading and opens up a world that is complementary to digital immersion, which is increasingly popular among the young population. In this way, she tries to introduce and make children aware of the importance of reading. The novels received very good reviews among adults as well, mainly because of the references to the popular culture of the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. School library demon, which was published for the first time in 2015, was published in a total of four publishing houses and was sold out very quickly in each one. It revitalizes the motif of the children's group in Croatian literature, which leads to the strengthening of the intellectual powers of young generations and the development of mutual friendship as a response to ubiquitous alienation. The novel is fast, tense and full of action scenes that encourage reading. The axis of the first part of the trilogy relies on pseudo-mythological phenomena in the classic oscillation between the protagonists and their persecutors, which must be defeated by outwitting and creativity. Doubles from darkness is a sequel to Demon, and it reflects mythological elements of wider Slavic literature, such as the appearance of Baba Yaga, Mokosh or Babaroga. New characters are introduced, and old ones are developed, whose mutual connections are strengthened.
In the footsteps of Black Peter is a novel that completes the trilogy, and which introduces motifs characteristic mainly of the sea coast of the Republic of Croatia into the usual mythological framework. Although the novels never name the location of the events, it is possible to recognize characters such as kresnik, shtrigun and similar famous Slavic monsters.
The Sleepwalkers of Monterier is not a continuation of the trilogy with the same characters, but only in style and universe. Instead of a classic children's troupe, this story about friendship tries to bring the irreconcilable closer together, bringing together completely different characters, dream and reality, daydreams and nightmares, all of which involves facing maturation and difficult life situations. The novel is multi-layered, but very fast and metaphorically close to all life's (un)occasions, regardless of age.
==Awards and honours==
* Demon školske knjižnice (School library demon) - Sfera award in the category of best novel, 2016 
* Dvojnici iz tame (Doubles from Darkness) - Sfera award in the category of best novel for children and the Grigor Vitez Pticica award for the best novel as chosen by the children's jury, as well as the praise of the Grigor Vitez award for popularizing the fantasy genre among children and young people, 2020
* Mjesečari Monteriera (The Sleepwalkers of Monterier) - Anto Gardaš award for the best children's novel, 2023
* School library demon was also selected for the National Project to encourage reading and promote the reading culture of children and young people by Reading to the Stars .
==Bibliography==
Republic of Croatia
* Demon školske knjižnice (Algoritam, Zagreb, 2015) (cover and illustrations: Damir Bišćan)
* Demon školske knjižnice (Hangar 7, Zagreb, 2019) (cover: Sebastijan Čamagajevac)
* Dvojnici iz tame (Hangar 7, Zagreb, 2019) (cover: Sebastijan Čamagajevac)
* Mjesečari Monteriera (Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb, 2022) (cover and illustrations: Petra Brnardić)
* Izgubljeni gospodin Kovač (in preparation)
Republic of Serbia
* Demon školske biblioteke (Laguna, Belgrade, 2016)
* Dvojnici iz tame (Laguna, Belgrade, 2017) (cover: Nevena Mišković)
* Tragovima Crnog Petra (Laguna, Belgrade, 2019) (cover: Nevena Mišković)
* Mjesečari Monteriera (Laguna, Belgrade, 2021) (cover: Ivica Stevanović)
Republic of North Macedonia
* Демонот од училишната библиотека (Antolog, Skopje, 2021) (Translators: Đorǵi Krstevski, Illustrators: Damir Bišḱan)
* Двојниците од темнината (Antolog, Skopje, 2022) (Translators: Georgy Krstevski) (Illustrators: Damir Bišḱan, Katerina Nikolovska-Teri)
* По трагите на Црниот Петар (Antolog, Skopje, 2023) (Translators: Georgy Krstevski)
Goodreads info 
Category:1981 births
Category:People from Rijeka
Category:Croatian people
Category:Writers