January the 18th, 2022 - Croatian biologist Martina Markov has decided to leave the safety of her job and enter into the often choppy waters of entrepreneurialism with her Green Stories project.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, The Green Stories (Zelene price) written by Croatian biologist Martina Markov, PhD, are illustrated educational stories enriched with humorous elements, with their plots located in Croatia's beautiful national parks and nature parks.

These are all stories written with the desire to convey to the youngest readers among us the natural beauty of the nation's protected areas and rich cultural heritage. Finally, the project entitled "The Adventures of Marko the Seagull in the Parks of Croatia" followed, which was supported by the Croatian Tourist Board (CNTB/HTZ).

It all started for Croatian biologist Martina Makov way back in 2008, all because of an injured sea turtle who spent the Easter holidays at the home of Martina Markov on the island of Murter as it got its strength back.

Her son named the turtle Leonardo, which prompted this woman from Sibenik to become a writer and head her profession as a biologist down an educational path - Green Stories. Today, Markov's collection has a dozen picture books, whose heroes are all animal characters.

“It started out as an interesting hobby related to my profession, and became more serious when I decided to leave my safe job as a biologist at the Kornati National Park and throw myself into new challenges and become an entrepreneur. The company Eco Edu Media was founded in March 2021, and my publishing business began back in late 2019, within the family company Motonautika - Luke. The first six titles were published within that company. For now, I'm alone in the company, but I'm contracting the design and illustration, printing and other similar things.

For novice publishers, this tricky situation with the coronavirus pandemic requires a level of caution because there are many limitations, but I believe that the preconditions for hiring new employees will soon be created, so that I can relieve myself a little and focus more on my creative work,'' explained Croatian biologist Martina Markov.

Within The Adventures of Marko the Seagull in the parks of Croatia, a total of ten areas have been covered so far for young readers (children aged 7 to 10) - Telascica, Lake Vrana, Krka, Biokovo, Mljet, Lastovo, the Paklenica islands, Northern Velebit, Ucka and Brijuni. There are ten of them left for this age group, and it's now the turn of Risnjak, which has already been written and will be published by April, and then Plitvice Lakes, which will arrive at the end of June.

The Ministry of Science and Education has given consent for all of Markov's stories to be used within the education system, city/municipal libraries are slowly filling up with them, and Green Stories can now also be ordered through online.

In addition, Croatian biologist Martina Markov revealed, teachers and other educators already use them when working with children and consider them to be very educational. In addition to picture books, she has designed fun puzzles and memory cards with characters from her stories, and Green Stories already exists in English.

"Within the series, I'm also working on the picture story diary of Marko the seagull, which was prepared for older preschoolers and first-graders and which will be published at the end of January. My plans are to cover all of Croatia's ational parks and nature parks, and to adapt the contents to a wide range of age groups.

In addition to the educational aspect of Green Stories, I want to work on some accompanying educational games and other content that will increase the visibility of Marko the Seagull as an ambassador of Croatian parks and of the protection of nature in general,'' concluded Martina Markov.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.