Prap, Lila 1955–

(Lilijana Praprotnik-Zupančič)

PERSONAL:

Born September 28, 1955, in Celje, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia); daughter of Albert (a civil engineer) and Vida (a bookkeeper) Praprotnik; married Bori Zupančič (an art therapist), January 30, 1982; children: Izidor. Education: University of Ljubljana, diploma in architectural engineering.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Škofia Vas, Slovenia. E-mail—lilijana.praprotnik@guest.arnes.si.

CAREER:

Architect in Wiesbaden, West Germany (now Germany), 1980-81; teacher at a high school for civil engineering in Celje, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), 1981-84; industrial designer in Gorenje Velenje, Yugoslavia, 1986-89; freelance artist, 1989—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Included in honor list, International Board on Books for Young People, 2002; Slovenian awards include Levstik Award, 2001, and honors for best children's book, 2002, 2005.

WRITINGS:

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Živalske Uspavanke, Mladinska Knijiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 2000, translation published as Animal Lullabies, NorthSouth Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Why? (originally published in Slovenian, 2002), Kane/Miller Book Publishers (La Jolla, CA), 2005.

(Illustrator) Barbara Jean Hicks, I Like Colors, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

1001 Stories, Kane/Miller Book Publishers (La Jolla, CA), 2006.

(Illustrator) Barbara Jean Hicks, I Like Black and White, Tiger Tales (Wilton, CT), 2006.

Daddies, NorthSouth Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Also illustrator or author and illustrator of books published solely in Slovenian, most often by the publisher Mladinska Knijiga.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lila Prap told CA: "I began to think about making books for children when my son was small and I wanted to amuse him with the word games and nonsense answers that I had invented with my dad in my own childhood. We had great fun, and a lot of things can be learned this way. With my books I'd like to stimulate parents and their children to have fun reading together and to make their own word games.

"All things that come into my life influence my work: reading books, watching films, especially about animals, going for walks, traveling, everyday problems … but mostly unexpected discoveries that appear when I simply play with materials, words, or colors.

"I make picture books mostly, so sometimes I begin with an idea of the text or sometimes with the illustrations. My texts are very short poems or prose, understandable to very small children, so the main things in my books are the ideas. A good idea for a picture book is not so easy to get; sometimes it takes almost a year before I think out something useful. The best ideas come when I'm working with something else.

"I'm inspired by the magic world of childhood. Everything is new, everything has to be discovered, each day is a new adventure, and there is no limit between dreams and reality. I want to make an example, to answer a child's 1,001 questions, to motivate the child to explore language and different types of writing, or to look at the tiniest living creatures as examples of the different ways of life that surround us. I want to motivate daddies to play with children, or children to play with daddies, to show how to lull a child to sleep, to tell a story in a thousand different ways. Mostly I use animal figures to tell something. I found them to be a good mediator. Animals can represent fear, power, weakness, curiosity, or other unexplainable things that children encounter in the earliest periods of their lives.

"One of my greatest inspirations for making more books after the first one has been the positive reaction of children and their parents to my books."