Ivana Brlić–Mažuranić is one of the most famous croatian writers. Her novel, The Marvellous Adventures of Hlapić the Apprentice, is very well known due to animated and live action movie, as well as popular commercials aired by croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs which were based on the animated movie itself and based on the book. The subject of this thesis is the reception of literary characters from the novel by the students in lower grades of elementary school. We have described life and work of Ivana Brlić–Mažuranić in the first part of the thesis. Next, we have analyzed the novel itself, with special review on descriptions of characters from the novel, the animated movie and the live action movie. We have also payed special attention on commercialization of zoomorphic characters. Furthermore, we have defined the meaning of required reading in lower grades of elementary school as well as her educational role. The thesis was based on field research of students reception of characters from The Marvellous Adventures of Hlapić the Apprentice. The questionnaire was given to students of the third grade of elementary school from three different croatian regions. It was made to test the influence of commercials, animated and live action movies on their perception of literary characters. The presumption was accurate – movies and commercials do affect the childrens perception. The analytical and descriptive analysis of results, discussion and the conclusion of thesis are all ment to explain the reasons behind that fact.