Our project
AzbookA — a library in your child’s first language
The first Russian-language children’s library in Croatia. Over a thousand books and games for ages 0 to 18, a book club, classes and events for families. We opened on 12 May 2024 and have been growing with our readers ever since.
Why we built it
AzbookA was never meant to be a book warehouse. When a family moves, everything changes for a child at once: the language outside, the nursery, the friends, the rules. A book in their first language is a small piece of the familiar world they can carry home and open.
So the library exists so that you do not have to hunt for books in visiting friends’ suitcases or order them from abroad at three weeks’ wait and half again in postage. So that children have a space of their own. And so that parents can sit down in the armchair and breathe out while a child picks something off the bottom shelf by themselves.
Books and conversation in a familiar language are a small piece of stability. Something of your own, in a new place, in a new country.
from our channel, 1 June 2026
What is on the shelves
Over 1,000 books and games — classics and contemporary authors, fiction and non-fiction.
Books, ages 0–18
Board books and wimmelbuch for the youngest, short stories and novels, poetry, fantasy and adventure, comics and encyclopaedias. There is a whole collection of alphabet books, from one drawn out of the Hermitage collection to an alphabet of good manners.
Games and puzzles
Board games, jigsaws and learning toys, borrowed on the same terms as books under the OPTIMUM and EVERYTHING AT ONCE memberships.
Recommendations
If you do not know what to offer a child, we will suggest something. Personal recommendations come with the two larger memberships, but you can always just ask.
Membership
Pick a plan, sign a short agreement, and you are a member. We do not take a deposit.
| START | OPTIMUM | EVERYTHING AT ONCE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per month | €6 | €10 | €15 |
| Books at a time | up to 3 | up to 6 | up to 10 |
| Games, puzzles, toys | — | up to 2 | up to 5 |
| Standard period | 2 weeks | 3 weeks | 20 days |
| Maximum with extension | 17 days | 21 days | 34 days |
| Swaps within the period | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Personal recommendations | — | yes | yes |
| Free place at an event | — | — | every 3 months |
Finished early? Come back for the next one — there is no limit on swaps. If a book is late, the period extends automatically at €0.20 per item per day, and that money goes straight back into buying more books.
Joining
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Write to us
On Telegram or however suits you. Tell us the children’s ages and what they like, so the first selection lands closer to the mark.
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Choose a plan
The three above. Starting with START and moving up once you see how much you actually read is perfectly sensible.
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Sign the agreement
Short and readable. The library rules are published openly — nothing in small print.
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Collect your books
Come to us on Kušlanova, or have them delivered — see below.
If you cannot get to us
Online catalogue
The whole collection is in an online database, so you can browse at home, set books aside and arrange collection. We send the link when you join.
Delivery across Zagreb
We send your chosen books by courier. The delivery cost depends on your address and is paid by the customer. Delivery to other parts of Croatia is planned.
Where to find us
Dragojla Kušlana 47, Zagreb — the outer centre, east side, about ten minutes by tram from Ban Jelačić Square, in the Stara Peščenica quarter.
The library lives in a hundred-year-old house. The whole building and the three hectares behind it once belonged to a single family, with a garden; our room was a fruit and vegetable shop. Then a trade union office. Then empty for years. We noticed the abandoned office about a decade ago, wrote to the city administration, waited for the tender, won it and renovated. Then, for the books, renovated again.
In 2026 the lease was extended by another ten years. So we are here for the long run.
Related
Come and get some books
Tell us how old your children are and what they enjoy. We will put together a first stack and explain how it all works.