The paper presents The Brotherhood of the Sinji Galeb, a children's novel by Tone Seliškar and its adaptation into a children's film, The Sinji Galeb, by Branko Bauer. There was a need to compare the versions of the novel written before and after 1945. Both versions were analysed within the social and historical context in which they were written. Also, a broader perspective of children's literature and culture (especially the media) in these historical circumstances is considered. In the first part of the paper, the writer Tone Seliškar and the director Branko Bauer are presented, and an overview of their other works and creative achievements is given. The paper is focused on the comparison of the novels The Brotherhood of the Sinji Galeb and The Company of the Sinji Galeb, where special emphasis is placed on the ideological and religious changes that occured in the post- war editions of the novel. In addition, the post-war edition of the novel The Company of the Sinji Galeb and its adaptation into a film, The Sinji Galeb, were analysed. From the materials in the Croatian Film Archive, we found out more about the time and the way in which the film was shot. Special emphasis has been placed on defining the paradigms of the child worker and the child warrior, which stem from social and political events and the needs of the time in which the film adaptation was created. Through the analysis of these elements, it is shown how both parts reflected and shaped the cultural and social norms of that time and how they adapted to the changes that occurred after the Second World War.