The fairytale for preschool children, written by Monika Kubelj, symbolically connects Slovenians with their homeland. The story takes place in Spruccia, an imagination land overgrown with spruces. Since Slovenia is also overgrown with spruces, we can imagine that the story is really happening here.

The story is written in English and it talks about a prince, who wishes to help his villagers. So he goes on a journey to find his favourite fruit. Later he would plant it behind the castle walls and it would be free to all. On his journey he comes across different people and new exotic fruit. For every fruit he tastes he has to give something in return. The journey shows him many different sides of our world, with many different cultures. When he has no hope left he returns home and when he is almost by the castle walls, he finds a valley filled with apple trees. The farmer living there happily gives him an apple and surprisingly expects nothing in return. The prince returns home excited and realizes that he didn’t have to travel across the world to find his favourite fruit, it was right around the corner. But would he find his dream otherwise?

The story shows us how very colorful our world is and that the solution is sometimes right around the corner. Slovenians that were looking for an opportunity abroad still think about their roots from time to time.

The story is a combination of a fairtytale and a coloring book, so every child can leave a mark on this book and it becomes unique. It is published on a internet shop site Amazon (American, German and English version), so it is accessible to everyone.

Monika Kubelj has been a journalist for a long time and now even a blogger. You can find her blog on www.luksuz.net.