Ivana's first work to be published in book form was The Good and the Naughty (Valjani i nevaljani), published in 1902 when her eldest daughter was nine years old. The book was self-published, which is to say that it was financed by Ivana's family (the Brlić family – her husband Vatroslav Brlić, to be exact). One hundred copies of the book were intended primarily for family and friends, but some of them found their way to readers outside the family circle; Rudolfo Franjin Magjer, for instance, included several texts from The Good and the Naughty in the 1906 anthology of youth literature In Verse and Prose. What is more, Ivana's literary debut received special mention in the anthology.

The collection The Good and the Naughty contains five tales and six poems for children. The title clearly indicates the pedagogical purpose of the book: distinguishing between the good and the naughty, and instructing the naughty how to become good. The tales point out and celebrate heroic actions and ethical choices of small children, the virtues and principles that should guide one through life, praising acceptable and condemning unacceptable modes of behaviour. The texts avoid humour and other forms of entertainment, while the relentless logic of pedagogy insists that any form of naughtiness is to be punished immediately. A similar didactic and instructive vein is found in the short rhyming verses, the only exception being the poem Ivo Comforts Father which depicts children's (lack of) logic in a humorous way.

Dubravka Zima, 2013