Among the texts that have not been published in book-form during Ivana's life are two fairy tales (published in children's magazines during the author's lifetime): The Tale of Truculent Mile and Six Stork Chicks (published in the children's magazine Smilje, issues 4 and 5, 1913) and The Golden Bird and the Wretched Child (published in the magazine Naša deca in Belgrade; issue 9, 1932). Both fairy tales were included in The Collected Works of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (volume 3: Fairy Tales and Fables, Slavonski Brod, 2011).

Both fairy tales feature the motif of a bird, albeit in different functions: the short tale The Golden Bird and the Wretched Child combines the typical fairy-tale motif of a healing golden bird with that of compassion, one of the ideals Ivana discusses in her A Book for Youth. The Tale of Truculent Mile and Six Stork Chicks is about a spoilt child who – through a wondrous rite of initiation and an encounter with stork chicks – mends his spoilt and heartless ways.

Dubravka Zima, 2013