Trying to change up the bedtime literature for Trev, I run across this:

For those not versed in south slavic language, the dedication is from my junior kindergarten friends and teachers. Out of the twenty children I can only put 11 names to memories of actual kids and four of them I remember only for stupid things (like that they ate chalk or were too dramatic). Three of the kids went on to be in my elementary school but I only remember two last names.

In any case, “Jezeva kucica” is an interesting choice for a bedtime read. It is a poem about a hedgehog who gets invited to a dinner party at fox’s house. Once the dinner is over he heads home despite fox’s pleas to stay in her beautiful stone home. The fox is surprised and follows the hedgehog, curious to see his dwelling. Hedgehog’s home turns out to be modest but very dear and important to him.

Because this is a poem, the language used is quite stunning, but also not something Trev has much experience with. He was asking me to translate the first few pages and then he gave up and just told me to continue reading. To be honest, even when I was a kid, I did not understand all the words in this story (or many other stories I read often). Even today there are words I just assume I know what they mean (is ‘gaj’ a forest or a valley???).

I hope that the difficult language will not make Trev not want to read this book again. I will try to translate a couple of pages every time we read, but let him enjoy the rhythm of the rhyme the rest of the time. I really liked this book when I was little, I hope he will like it too.