A boy and his dog. Or a dog and his boy. Whichever you prefer. We’re sure you’ve heard that old saying: Good things happen when you least expect them. Even on a stormy April day, good things can happen. The meeting between a boy and a dog is the best thing that ever happened to both of them. It was friendship at first sight. Find out how it all started and join Beton and Roni on their adventures.

Koraljka Milun graduated from the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb and has been working for more than 20 years as a primary school teacher at Jabukovac Elementary. She has published several picture books, one of the most popular being Zmaj Škakljaj (Ticklish Dragon). Since 2011, Koraljka Milun has frequently hosted book fairs and festivals and has participated in workshops in libraries. After several years, she returned to writing stories, this time for slightly older children, aiming to encourage them to read.

Translator: Lina Krnic
Translator, publisher, dog enthusiast. I’ve worked in the publishing industry since 2015, when I started translating promotional materials and samples of picture books for Ibis grafika. I have worked on many translation and editorial projects, and after finishing my studies at the University of Essex, I settled in Southeast England, where I live with my dog. Just like Beton, she is also black (overwhelmingly), and people often cross the road in fear when they see her, so I decided that translating this book would be a good idea. Beton and Roni is my first published full-length (co)translation.

Koraljka Milun:
"I’ve always loved dogs and adventures. When I was a child, I thought I would be a secret agent. Instead, I became a teacher. I create stories for my children and for my students. When I’m not working, I often go for walks with my dogs. Both of them are as good as they are black. You could have an adventure with them any day of the week; all you need to do is step out of the house."

Lawrence Shimel:
"I have lived in Spain for almost a quarter century now, but I was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island, where my family had lots of pets: not just dogs, but also cats, goats, chickens, ferrets, turtles and more. One time, my mother even came home from shopping with two llamas! She was passing a petting zoo, and they weren’t treating them well, so she bought them and brought them home with her. My passion was fish, and I even began to study as an oceanographer, but I am so allergic to fish (eating them) that I turned to my other passion, books, and became a writer and literary translator instead."

This book was published within the project Knjiga u parku (A book in a park) co-funded by the European Union as part of Creative Europe programme.