Biography

Mato Lovrak was born on 8 March 1899 in Veliki Grđevac.
Lovrak finished teacher training college in Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

 and served as teacher in Kutina

Kutina

Kutina is a small city in central Croatia, the largest settlement in the hilly region of Moslavina, in the Sisak-Moslavina county. The town proper has a population of 14,814 , while the total municipality population is 22,815....

, Veliki Grđevac, Veliki Zdenci

Veliki Zdenci

Veliki Zdenci is a village in Croatia. It is connected by the D5 highway....

 and Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

. Lovrak wrote realistic short stories and novels for children.

His most famous works are "Vlak u snijegu

Vlak u snijegu

Vlak u snijegu , first called Djeca Velikog Sela --"The children of Veliko Selo") is a children's novel written by Croatian novelist Mato Lovrak , then a young schoolteacher inspired by actual events, in 1933....

" ("A Train in the Snow"), "Družba Pere Kvržice" ("Pero Kvržica's Gang"). Those novels were the basis for two children's movies with the same names.
"Vlak u snijegu" has been translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

, Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 and Slovene language. "Družba of Pero Kvržica" has been translated into Esperanto

Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

.

His works emphasized love for children, the beauty of nature and the pursuit of "social justice". Lovrak made a great impact on Croatian literature for children and influenced other writers.

Mato Lovrak died in Zagreb on 14 March 1974.