This master's thesis deals with a selected corpus of contemporary Croatian works for children and youth, which has been (for many years) characterized by numerous limitations and was written solely for pedagogical purposes. Therefore, the world literature and Croatian literature for children and young people is marked by numerous topics that were considered to be taboo because there have been insufficient oral or written discussions about them. The main reason for that was to keep children protected from “dark” and difficult topics. Fortunately, contemporary literature has recognized the importance of introducing such topics to children, but in a way that is understandable and appropriate to them. In addition to topics such as death, illness, addiction, violence, abuse, etc., the themes such as love and sex are extremely significant and common. The first part of this paper analyses the basic features of Croatian literature for children and young people, describes how it has changed over time, which topics are taboo, and how they were gradually introduced into children’s literature. The second part of the paper analyses the breakthrough of love and sexual motives, which are today, among all taboo topics, the most common and popular ones in Croatian literature for children and adolescents. The third part of the paper analyses works of some of the most famous Croatian writers for children and youth. Their works deal with topics such as love, sexuality, sexual relations, and sexual maturation of young people. Therefore, the mentioned authors are the ones who frequently and very bravely talk about taboo topics, because they are aware that it is inevitable for young people to deal with them at one point in their life.