64 Books Like Zala The Slovenian Dragon

A young knight befriends a terrifying dragon with a penchant for baking near his home. They spend their time baking together and enjoying many cookies.

The time is coming, however, for the annual duels when a young knight must spear a dragon, and dragons must eat a knight that he cooked with his own breath! What will they do? This book is lyrical and charming and the illustrations are just perfect for the story. I’m sure by the end, everyone will want some scrumptious cookies!

This book is hilarious. It is a story about a very poorly behaved-dragon. He stomped on flowers, stole candy from baby unicorns, and was really very rude. The king orders the knights to tame him, which doesn’t work. Then he asks EVERYONE ELSE to tame him with little success.

Finally, one boy has a plan, and it works! He makes friends with the terrible dragon. There are cute and expressive illustrations throughout, and it's so funny.

A group of dragons is desperate for a break from their day-to-day, pondering where they could go for a vacation. Should they go to the clouds? To a waterfall? To the ocean?

This book is just bursting with colorful characters and every kind of dragon there is. Told in verse, this is wonderful for a read-aloud at circle time. The art is cute and very appealing, and it is definitely one of my favorite dragon books to share with the kids in my class.

Dragon is the best at making balloon sculptures, drawing, and performing with his drums and guitar. He beats Frog in the race and is NOT a good winner. Dragon is a show-off and stacks the highest block tower. And then one day no one is around, because no one likes a “Braggin Dragon”.

This book has a great message about learning to appreciate your friends and how to be humble. The art in this book is excellent. The character design is brilliant and funny, and the book and text design works really well. A fantastic book on friendship to add to a classroom.

I had just moved to Slovenia when I saw this book in the window of a bookshop in Ljubljana. I immediately bought it and devoured the prose, going cover to cover in just two days. So little has been written about Slovenia in English, and I was hungry for insight into the country I would call home for many years. 

The book is a mix; it's part guidebook, part insightful essays on aspects of Slovenian life, such as education, the film industry, and publishing. It is also part personal memoir, with anecdotes about the author's wedding day, for example. 

I was looking for an overview of the country, and Slovenology certainly provides that. If you're seeking a light, functional, and interesting read about Slovenia, this book is a really good place to start.

I am Slovene-American, my mother being off the boat. This book told me what I’d wanted to know: how my people engaged with the world around them, not just physically, but metaphysically. Anyone interested in understanding the way folk belief mixed with medicine, and why people would resort to beliefs we would view strange in modern day, could learn quite a bit from this book about the rural folk of Slovenia and their medicine.

It’s also a key resource for one fantasy book I still have in the works, which is reminiscent of Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, and it is a wonderful anthropological resource that shows, very plainly, how magic is alive in this world as much as it is in the fictional ones we love so much.

Slovenia might only have two million citizens, but they've punched above their weight. Author John Bills has superbly brought 100 of the most important to our attention. I loved reading about Slovenia's world-famous endurance swimmers, Everest skiers, scientists, musicians, poets, playwrights, and more.

Laced with dry humor, this book is a must-have for Slovenophiles who want to learn more about the Slovenian people who have gone well beyond their borders and made their mark on the greater world. 

Though I'd seen this book advertised, it took a recommendation from a Slovenian to make me read it. And I'm glad I did. Blake, a Canadian author who's lived in Slovenia for many years, has done an excellent job documenting what makes Slovenians–Slovene. 

It's an informative and frequently funny look at the country and its people. I found myself chuckling at many of the behaviors Blake notes that I had personally experienced myself.

With its undercurrent of dry humor and its overview of the people, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in understanding Slovenians.

As a fan of both Slovenia and the mountains, this book was a real treat. Written by a Canadian author, it’s an excellent account of the rise of Slovenian climbers during a golden era in the 1970s and ‘80s, who quickly became some of the most respected alpinists in the world.

Although it focuses on stories of high peaks, north faces, first ascents, and avalanches, it's set in a background of life in Slovenia, largely during the Yugoslav era. I found this insight fascinating, and it helped me to understand more about the Slovenian love of high places and what draws so many Slovenes to their numerous summits. A very enjoyable read–well-researched and written. 

The sources found in Collective Identities illustrate how national ideas were received, fashioned, and conveyed by thinkers in many parts of Europe during the modern era. Each volume also includes a number of opening essays and chapter introductions which provide helpful references to additional foundational texts and matters of historical context. In sum, the volumes perform the very valuable service of introducing readers to some common elements in many ‘discourses’ from the period as well as important local variations in style and content.