ederlands N letterenfonds dutch foundation for literature

A selection from 2011 Children’s Books Spring 2012 2+ Cheerful Mies van Hout 2+ What Are You Doing in My Bed? Joke van Leeuwen 4+ Miss Van Zanten and the Seven Robbers Mathilde Stein and Dorine de Vos

4+ Ensor: The Great Masquerade 6+ Daddy, Can You Marije Tolman Hear Me? Tamara Bos and Annemarie van Haeringen 7+ My Grandpa and 8+ A Horse in Three Me, and Grandma Parts the Pig Ted van Lieshout Marjolijn Hof, Judith Ten Bosch

10+ My Name Is Olivia and I Can’t Do Anything About That 10+ Winter Jowi Schmitz Animals Bibi Dumon Tak, Martijn van Linden 10+ Firebomb 10+ Then Came Sam Harm de Jonge Edward van de Vendel

10+ Your Best Friend, Anne 15+ Bajaar Jacqueline van Mies van Hout Maarsen 10+ Hidden Like Anne Frank Marcel Prins and 15+ Barbed Wire Peter Henk Steenhuis Derk Visser

Children’s Books from Holland Page 2 Children’s Books from Holland Page 3 2+ Cheerful 4+ Miss Van Zanten and Mies van Hout is an illustrator who, in a short period of time and without too much ado, has filled children’s bookshelves Mies van Hout with her colourful illustrations, including for stories by the Seven Robbers Mathilde Stein and Hanna Kraan. Vrolijk is her first picture book without outside involvement from another writer. Mathilde Stein and Inspired by a children’s workshop where she experimented with oil pastels, she developed a new technique, which she then went on to use in her own picture book. Dorine de Vos While Van Hout’s previous work with gouache and acrylics left space for air and light, in this new picture book she worked on black paper. This gives the pages an intrigu- A band of rowdy robbers lies in ambush, wait- ing sort of darkness, with the somewhat sketch-like illustra- ing to attack the stagecoach. ‘“Hey! Men!” tions shining out. cried Berend. “Draw your pistols, quick! / At a time when children are growing up with emoticons, Here’s the stagecoach, packed with cash and Van Hout gives a new interpretation to emotions. On every gold!” / Oh dear, they don’t know who’s inside. spread, a different fish swims towards the viewer, with its / If only they’d been told...’ Inside the coach is mood articulated in expressive letters on the page next to it none other than Miss Van Zanten, a parenting by the artist herself (including in the expert who is determined to teach the motley seven translations that have been crew some manners. With her infectious sense published so far). Van Hout placed of humour, Mathilde Stein has written a crazy her fish directly onto paper without rhyming ballad, whose quirkiness is reminis- making any preliminary sketches. cent of the work of Annie M.G. Schmidt. But A proud fish swims with its nose the robbers don’t take it lying down and they held high, while a nervous one is succeed in turning this respectable lady into a Author Mathilde Stein Author/Illustrator This picture book helps composed of a jumble of shaky lines. great robber. Stein aims for exactly the same Mies van Hout A school of fish that, whether they’re cheerful undermining of authority that made Illustrator Dorine de Vos A wonderful story full Age 2+ toddlers and pre-schoolers to sad or surprised, will certainly make Schmidt so popular with her young readers. Age 4+ Pages 40 the reader feel pretty cheerful. Dorine de Vos, the art director responsible for of galloping horses and Pages 32 Publisher recognise their emotions and the design of ’s famous Hotel New Lemniscaat York, illustrated this picture book with its cha- Publisher banging pistols.’ Margriet Lemniscaat Contact for rights give names to them. Not only otic, anarchic drawings in a colourful child-like Diana Garibbo style; her bristly baddies’ faces look mischie- Contact for rights [email protected] that, it is also a wonderful Diana Garibbo vous rather than dangerous. And so the delib- [email protected] Rights sold A festive explosion of German, French, English, book to browse through erate inelegance of the illustrations is a perfect Rights sold Italian, Chinese, Japanese, match for the unconventional text. Portugese eccentricity. Trouw Basque endlessly. Parool

goers are made up of soft shades, with Ensor’s 2+ What Are You 4+ Ensor: The Great black hat and tailcoat forming a fine contrast. As in De boomhut, the award-winning picture book that Tolman created with her father, which has Doing in My Bed? Masquerade been exhibited all over the world, an atmosphere of dreamy melancholy fills the pages. The simple Joke van Leeuwen Marije Tolman sentences sweep the reader along into a world where masks rain down and Death is a welcome guest who makes a wonderful partner for a dance ‘What are you doing in my bed?’ These words in the waves. Ensor, de grote maskerade is a echo like a mantra through the pages of Joke van A wonderful picture book richly imaginative interpretation of the life of one Leeuwen’s picture book for toddlers. Although Author/Illustrator of Flanders’ most important innovators in modern Marije Tolman technically speaking, ‘pages’ isn’t quite the right about Ensor’s wondrous art. This is a musical picture book with a never- word. Waarom lig jij in mijn bedje? is constructed Age 4+ ending conga as its enchanting finale. as a ‘leporello’, a concertina book that can be Pages 28 realm of thought: crazy, folded out to make a strip that’s a couple of metres Publisher long. A typical Joke van Leeuwen child (big nose, Leopold serious, light-hearted, little eyes) throws his bear out of bed for being too Contact for rights Dania van Dishoeck melancholy, light and big and too warm. With a ‘Go and sleep in your d.van.dishoeck@ own bed!’, he tells the bear to scram. Bear leaves singel262.nl dark. Leeuwarder Courant for another bed, where he finds another cuddly toy, and asks the big question: ‘What are you doing in my bed?’ And the question goes from cuddly toy to bed to cuddy toy until it arrives at the last little The modern symbolist James Ensor (1860–1949) ragdoll – and there’s no bed left for him. Is it a sad from the Flemish coastal town of Ostend is famous and sorry tale? Not at all. Because if you turn No one can top the for his paintings of masks, skeletons and other around the fold-out book and follow the ragdoll’s strange figures. What is less well known is that he Author/Illustrator journey back past all the beds, you’ll find that there simple ingenuity of Joke van Leeuwen also composed music. Marije Tolman, winner of is a place left in one of the beds – and it’s just the Age 2+ the Gouden Penseel and the Bologna Ragazzi right size for a ragdoll. Joke van Leeuwen’s Award, has combined these two disciplines in a Pages 16 Following Heb je mijn zusje gezien?, Joke van wistful picture book, which is part of a successful latest picture book: Publisher Leeuwen has written and illustrated another abso- Querido series of illustrated art books published by Leopold lute hit for toddlers with Waarom lig jij in mijn and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. In Ensor, Waarom lig jij in mijn Contact for rights bedje? It’s playfully illustrated with clear shapes, Lucienne van der Leije de grote maskerade, the artist goes on a fantastic large areas of colour, a minimum of details and it bedje? De Volkskrant [email protected] journey, starting and ending by his beloved sea. isn’t too sweet; the ‘Go and sleep in your own bed’ The illustrations of peculiar sea creatures, human- theme is firmly anchored in the story. sized insects and imaginatively attired carnival-

Children’s Books from Holland Page 4 Children’s Books from Holland Page 5 One of them is nearing the end of his life, while 6+ Daddy, Can You Hear Me? 7+ My Grandpa and Me, the other is at the beginning, but they both know very well that ‘getting older is something that happens all by itself’, even though time Tamara Bos and and Grandma the Pig seems to stand still in the safe little world they have created for themselves. ‘You know it can’t Annemarie van Haeringen Marjolijn Hof, go on like this, don’t you?’, the granddaughter asks her grandpa. ‘One day it’ll be over and I won’t come to stay anymore.’ Judith Ten Bosch Hof wisely does not introduce any other Author characters: that would only disturb the close Tamara Bos Papa, hoor je me? may already relationship between grandfather and grand- Illustrator daughter. She keeps her story beautifully Annemarie van Haeringen be considered as one of the Biography ‘small’, playing with language, expanding Age 6+ The many books that Marjolijn Hof (b. 1956) things and inverting them, and suggesting so Pages 48 best books ever written in this read as a child inspired her to start writing much through clever dialogue alone. And so Publisher stories at a young age. However, it was a long the fact that the grandmother’s not around Leopold genre. Volkskrant time before she decided to share her talent needs no explanation. It’s just as self-explana- Contact for rights with the outside world. In 2006, after twenty tory as a pig eating pancakes and a grand­ Dania van Dishoeck d.van.dishoeck@ years as a librarian, her book Een kleine kans father who one day will no longer be there. singel262.n The emotional live coverage was finally published, promptly winning all of Rights sold the major literary awards. It was made into a Chinese of a final farewell. Volkskrant film last year. Her other successes include Oversteken (2007) and Moeder nummer nul (2008). Her style, which features sharp obser- vations and alternately playful and sensitive Biography And then there are those illustrations by dialogue, is reminiscent of Guus Kuijer: a great Tamara Bos (b. 1967) is the daughter of film Annemarie van Haeringen! Polle’s dad came up compliment. producer and author Burny Bos. She followed with a metaphor for his sickness: it’s a war be- in his footsteps and became famous as the tween the red and blue soldiers in the Stratego scriptwriter of Het paard van Sinterklaas game that he played so often with his son. The A grandma who acts like a pig? Is there anyone (2005). Like her father, she is able to see blue soldiers seem to be winning. But as they’re out there whose imagination that doesn’t ap- things through a child’s eyes and always resting, the red soldiers sneak closer, armed to peal to? Or does the title My Grandpa and Me, ­succeeds in lending a surprising twist to the teeth. And in a bloody scene, one of the blue and Grandma the Pig actually mean something her stories. soldiers is killed. else? Annemarie van Haeringen (b. 1959) is one On the following pages, his fellow soldiers, What’s for sure is that it was last year’s of the most highly regarded illustrators in the clearly devastated, accompany him to his final most intriguing and original title, which revealed right now. She made her reputa- resting place. The illustrations by Van Haeringen, that Marjolijn Hof, following the realistic books tion with her animal stories and the successful which will continue to fascinate on subsequent that brought her awards and fame, is trying out series about Kleine Ezel (Little Donkey), which readings, ensure that Papa, hoor je me? is so a different style, characterised by quirky imagi- she creates with Rindert Kromhout. Her work much more than a book about a father’s death. nation and absurd humour. has won the highest Dutch award for illustra- And she has done so with great success. tion on three occasions: the Gouden Penseel. With her apt images, she sketches a small yet atmospheric universe in which an eccentric grandfather and his delightfully different grand- Polle is sitting beside his father’s dead body, daughter both entirely and enthusiastically giving him a lively and honest account of the surrender to their imaginations. events following his death: who’s been to visit, This results in some hilarious scenes, such how strangely grown-ups talk about death and as Grandpa climbing up to do some work on what’s going to happen at his funeral. He brings the roof, but being too scared to come back up memories of his father, both good ones and down. And then there’s ‘thing day’ when they not such good ones. He’s even brave enough can only talk to objects because, says to say: ‘Sometimes, but hardly ever at all, I was Grandpa, we spend too much time thinking sorry you were my dad.’ about ourselves and we don’t listen to things This may sound a little like the well-known properly. The result is that Grandpa asks his Dutch pastime of breaking taboos, but this mug for a kiss and his granddaughter suggests honesty is the true strength of this story by clearing out the kitchen cupboard because it Tamara Bos, as both the dead father and might feel like being empty for a day. his son are presented in a way that is very And yet, no matter how funny their imagina- Idiotic scenes packed with believable. tive games might be, Hof always succeeds in Bos has written subtly and realistically keeping reality close by and, without resorting to hilarious hyperbole and about death and mourning, whereas other sentimentality, she lets real life gently trickle in. books on this theme are often overly sweet seems to have one main and sentimental and aim only to convey the message that it’s okay to grieve, attempting goal: to make the reader to offer consolation with their talk of heaven, Author laugh. Trouw stars and candles. For this reason alone, Marjolijn Hof Papa, hoor je me? can be counted as one of Illustrator Judith Ten Bosch the best books to have been created in this Age 7+ genre. A delightful book: heart- Pages 112 Publisher warming, humorous, well Querido Contact for rights written, a little absurd, but Lucienne van der Leije [email protected] always close to reality.’ Rights sold German, Fench, Turkish De Groene Amsterdammer

Children’s Books from Holland Page 6 Children’s Books from Holland Page 7 8+ A Horse in 10+ Winter Animals Three Parts Bibi Dumon Tak, After a short and snappy introduction to the ‘top’ and ‘bot- Ted van Lieshout Martijn van Linden tom’ of our planet, Dumon Tak goes on to discuss the lives of 23 well-known and less well-known polar residents, with the skill of a seasoned polar biologist. What these crea- tures have in common is that they have to survive this ex- treme ‘deep-freeze’ cold. This makes them not merely Biography ­unusual, like the animals she so vividly portrayed in Bibi’s Bibi Dumon Tak (b. 1964) writes literary non-fiction for bijzondere beestenboek (2006). No, it makes them very children, often about animals. Like a documentary maker, special indeed: they all come equipped with their own Biography she goes out into the world and reports what she sees. ‘winter gadgets’, as Dumon Tak so fittingly describes the Ted van Lieshout (b. 1955) writes prose and poetry for Sometimes she is moved by the suffering of laboratory ingenious anti-freeze systems with which evolution has children and has carried off nearly every literary award in animals (Laika tussen de sterren, 2006) and sometimes gifted them. the Netherlands, including the prestigious Theo Thijssen by young ex-prisoners (Rotjongens, 2007). She has won The walrus and the narwhal, the ‘unicorn of the sea’, Prijs of €60,000 for his entire oeuvre. His YA novel Gebr. four Zilveren Griffels, including for Het Koeienboek (2010) have their own thick layers of blubber. And the Arctic has been translated and well received in many other and Fiet wil rennen (2009), her successful picture book ground squirrel turns on the ‘super-refrigeration’ for eight countries. In 2009, Hou van mij was published, a unique about an ostrich that tries to run into the wind. Her Soldier months, so that any body parts he doesn’t need during his brick of a book that brings together all of his poems. Bear (published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, hibernation can just freeze without any problems. And the This year saw the publication of Mijn meneer, his first translated by Laura Watkinson) won the American Library male Emperor penguins – abandoned by the females in a novel for adults. Association’s Mildred L. Batchelder Award 2012 for the snowy wasteland – deliberately sit on their eggs during most outstanding children’s book in translation. the winter months, so that the chicks can grow up in the summer. You can often see at a glance what a piece of writing is, says Ted van Lieshout in Driedelig Very few writers can do what Bibi Dumon Tak does: write Dumon Tak provides a great deal of information, yet it’s paard, whether it’s a letter that you’re reading, outstanding literary non-fiction for children. Anyone who is never dull to read about the wonderful but harsh life that or a poem or a shopping list. However, the at all sceptical should read Winterdieren, a book that will her winter animals lead. This comes as a result of her visu- texts in this book lack the telltale signs: they whisk you away to the most remote areas of our world: the al, poetic and light-hearted style of writing and the way she all look like rectangular blocks. North and South Poles, ‘the mother and father of the earth’. directly addresses the reader, with excellent support from Van Lieshout calls them ‘block poems’, Martijn van der Linden’s icy blue winter although their content often leans more to- illustrations. wards prose than poetry. The blocks of text ‘Listen! Just listen to that!’, she says, seem impenetrable at first sight, but as soon alerting the reader to the howling of the as you start reading, you become caught up wolves. And she cries out in amazement in the excitement of this experiment in form. at the sight of the musk ox: ‘Man oh man, Every text is a voyage of discovery: who is what a beast! Scruffy and shaggy on the writer and who is the text aimed at? the outside, caring and ancient on the Slowly, the stories unfold: amusing, slightly inside.’ With its long, messy, shabby hair, absurd tales, anecdotes, letters, ‘missing’ Author Word craft meets artistic it looks like a ‘windswept pine forest with notices, prayers, monologues and even adver- Ted van Lieshout hoofs’. tisements, like the one for ‘super-concentrated Age 8+ skill in this unconventional Most extraordinary of all is the Arctic mineral water’ that means you only have to go Pages 87 tern: it ‘follows the sun its whole life long’ to the toilet half as often. It’s an entertaining Publisher and attractively designed and flies 40,000 kilometres every year, comment on how the advertising industry likes Leopold from the North Pole to the South Pole to hoodwink consumers. Contact for rights browsing book that and back again. If only you could fly Dania van Dishoeck along with it, you might think. But not d.van.dishoeck@ transcends overly strict Social criticism often puts in an appearance in singel262.nl without Dumon Tak as the perfect guide. this collection, sometimes in an even harsher age limits. Vrij Nederland form, for example in the proposal from an old people’s home to ‘put down’ troublesome residents or to ‘clear out’ the whole home if necessary, in order to meet cost-cutting Driedelig paard is an requirements. The power of these block poems is that exceptionally successful they are hilariously subversive. Familiar situa- cocktail of children’s art tions are reversed, magnified and described in an unconventional way. Take, for example, the and experimentation. Superb illustrations and mother who breaks one of the golden rules of parenting and informs her son that the picture Volkskrant the masterful pen of Bibi he drew for her on Mother’s Day is of very poor quality. ‘I wonder how you’d like it if I presented Dumon Tak make Winter­ you with such a messy drawing. I’d never hear the end of it!’ dieren one of the most beautiful books of the Author The often tense relationship between mother In many of his texts, Van Lieshout explores Bibi Dumon Tak and son is a theme that frequently appears in the boundaries between reality and the child’s Illustrator year. Trouw Martijn van der Linden Van Lieshout’s work, particularly in his poetry. imagination by creating variations on fairy tales Age 10+ But the tone is also always unmistakably­ his and their elements. Sometimes he also refers own: provocative, vicious or aggrieved, pedan- to his own work. Among the block poems, Pages 135 tic, quick-witted and sometimes unexpectedly there are eye-pleasing ‘visual sonnets’, in A book about a cold Publisher Querido serene and touching, as in his most poetic which, by way of contrast, the shape is really subject, but written with Contact for rights block poem: ‘Will there ever be anyone sitting important. These consist of photographed Lucienne van der Leije at the window who looks out and is happy to objects, such as tomatoes and shells, which so much love that it warms [email protected] see me walking outside and thinks it’s a beau- are arranged in the form of a sonnet. Driedelig Rights sold tiful sight?” paard innovates and inspires on all fronts. your heart! Leesgoed German

Children’s Books from Holland Page 8 Children’s Books from Holland Page 9 Literary (The Paintbrushes) Since 1973 Gouden Annual award for the Penseel 2011 Prizes best illustrations in (Golden children’s books. Paintbrush) The major awards for children’s books by Dutch authors and Seizoenen Blexbolex illustrators, with the recent Clavis winners

(Young Adult Prize) Since 2010 Annual award for the best young- adult books (15+).

2011 (The Slate Pencils) Gouden Since 1954 De hemel van Heivisj Annual awards for the (selected by the jury) Griffel 2011 Benny Lindelauf (Golden best-written children’s Querido Slate Pencil) books.

Mama Tandoori Dissus (voted for by the public) Simon van der Geest Ernest van der Kwast Querido Nijgh & Van Ditmar 10+ Zilveren Griffels 2011 (Silver Slate Pencils)

En? Ik! Wie is dat? Kitty Crowther Kinderuniversiteit van De Eenhoorn Tilburg 2+ Zwijsen Non-fiction Het boeboek 2012 Imme Dros Meneer Kandinsky Querido was een schilder Driedelig Paard 2+ Daan Remmerts de Vries Leopold Ted van Lieshout Roodkapje was Non-fiction 2011 Leopold een toffe meid Marjet Huiberts Ik leer liedjes van De hemel van Gottmer verlangen, en aan je 6+ apenstaartje hangen Heivitsj Bette Westera Benny Lindelauf Hoe oma almaar Gottmer Querido kleiner werd Poetry Michael de Cock Querido Hoera voor 6+ Superguppie! Since 1988 Edward van de Vendel Vliegen tot de hemel Querido Annual award for books which excel in Michael de Cock Poetry Davidsfonds language, content, illustrations and lay-out. 9+

Children’s Books from Holland Page 10 Children’s Books from Holland Page 11 10+ My Name Is Olivia and 10+ Then Came Sam This heart-warming story is one of Edward van de Vendel’s best books so far. This is mainly a result of the tone, which flows as though the story, which is based on true events, is I Can’t Do Anything Edward van de Vendel telling itself. With the exception of a few details, you don’t sense a writer at work here, trying to craft everything as About That beautifully as possible. Van de Vendel does of course do Some writers think that to make a captivating story you so in this book, but more subtly than in his other works. have to come up with an ingenious plot in an exotic setting. Kix’s authentic voice and his experiences really are the Jowi Schmitz But sometimes an original girl in an unusual situation can most important elements. be even better. Olivia is that kind of girl. Her sad and hu- This means that, seen through adult eyes, it remains morous diary Ik heet Olivia en daar kan ik ook niks aan a rather small story, entirely about emotions and the prob- Biography doen feels absolutely genuine, from cover to cover. Biography lems surrounding a stray dog. But Van de Vendel skilfully Jowi Schmitz (b. 1972) works as a journalist for de Olivia lives with her father John, who is a barber, on a The award-winning oeuvre of Edward van de Vendel (b. makes us feel how such an event is anything but a small Volkskrant, has contributed to a number of short-story sailing boat on a trailer in the garden behind the hairdress- 1964) now numbers over fifty titles and is remarkably var- story in the life of a nine-year-old. collections and had already written two books for adults er’s. The boat was Olivia’s mother’s favourite spot and, ied. He has written picture books such as Kleinvader, non- Kix and his sister want to keep the dog and they call him before making her debut as a children’s writer with Ik heet right after her cremation, they sailed it from Friesland to the fiction books about the Ajax football club and bullying, YA Sam. Their love for Sam is touchingly obvious in the way Olivia en daar kan ik ook niks aan doen. The book was big city, where Olivia’s father wants to make a fresh start. novels like De dagen van de bluegrassliefde and De ge- they see him as an equal and take his own wishes seriously. immediately very well received, both in major newspapers They live among piles of dirty clothes in the cabin and on lukvinder, poetry for young people and his Superguppie He’s free to go where he pleases, but happily Sam realises and online. Young readers also reacted positively to the the deck, where every Friday they eat a cake made from collections of poems for toddlers. one morning that he knows something for certain: ‘Sam story. Schmitz lives on a boat herself and so knows exactly the last leftovers in the freezer. didn’t come here because they wanted to keep him. He how it feels. Olivia’s dad spends a lot of time crying. His came because he wanted to keep them.’ business is not going well and at the end of the ‘It came as a surprise whenever you saw him, because he Then Kix’s dad discovers that the dog actually belongs summer he even forgets that Olivia has to go was always so beautiful and white, and also a little bit mys- to the disturbed Cracker, the son of the nasty neighbours to school. It’s just as well that Olivia has a terious.’ Nine-year-old Kix and his younger sister Emilia across the road. And his name is Nanook, not Sam. But Kix good head on her shoulders: she goes online immediately fall in love with the big Pyrenean mountain dog is sure that whenever anyone had ever called Sam Nanook in and organises a place for herself in the top who walks into their lives, but sometimes suddenly disap- the past he’d always thought: ‘I’m not a Nanook. I’m a Sam.’ class at the local school, where she thinks pears again. The dog is nervous, thin, has sad eyes, and Because that’s how it works when you’re a child. You’re sure most of the other children are stupid, but also tangles in his ‘warm snowy fur’. Slowly the children gain his that no one understands your pet as well as you. finds a friend. trust. But where did he come from? Olivia describes her blunders and experi- ences directly and cynically, a talent she has inherited from her mother. You can tell that she’s proud of it. ‘I had to learn how to cope This heart-warming Author with life a bit,’ Olivia says. Perhaps that’s harsh Edward van de Vendel for a girl of her age, but what else can she do story is one of the best Illustrator when everything around her refuses to return Philip Hopman to normal? books in Edward van Age 10+ Pages 112 Schmitz’s debut reads like a book for girls, full de Vendel’s oeuvre. Publisher of problems and tragicomic situations, yet it Trouw Querido also has a lot more to offer. Schmitz goes Contact for rights Lucienne van der Leije beyond the dead mother, the neglectful father [email protected] and the bullying. Rather than a classic ‘prob- Rights sold lem book’, this has made her story into a small With Toen kwam Sam, German, French work of art: a book that paints a picture of how to overcome grief that seems unbearable. Edward van de Vendel Olivia is a girl you can take to your heart. is already staking a claim to have written the best children’s book of the year. [...] A book with psychological depth and literary complexity that never In spite of the infectious goes over children’s heads. humour, this is a book A story that has everything with an almost tangibly it takes to capturea young dark atmosphere, like reader’s heart. De Standaard a walk through a forest in a soaking raincoat: It’s not long before Sam becomes the subject of a row with the neighbours. The tension really rises during a night-time Author mission to liberate Sam, which even involves the use of miserable and wonderful, Jowi Schmitz shotguns. And yet the story remains entirely believable. Age 10+ all at the same time. Philip Hopman’s outstanding pen-and-ink drawings are as Pages 167 lively as ever, but seem sturdier than usual because of the de Volkskrant Publisher way he plays with large areas of black. The white Sam Lemniscaat shines out of them, looking wonderfully lumbering and Contact for rights Diana Garibbo sweet. Subdued, intimate, [email protected] Rights sold heartrending. Trouw German

Children’s Books from Holland Page 12 Children’s Books from Holland Page 13 10+ Firebomb In fact, everyone has a good reason for want- 10+ Hidden Like Anne Frank ing to get their own back on Bram. But who was it really? Olivier, who had his most pre- Harm de Jonge cious memories stolen? Sikkie the drug dealer, Marcel Prins and with his knife? One of the other boys? Vuurbom reads like a thrilling whodunit. The effective use Peter Henk Steenhuis of flashbacks, modelled on crime novels, en- Anne Frank is still a very important starting point sures a compelling, captivating structure. when it comes to telling children about the But Vuurbom is about something more Holocaust. Having become a symbol for the persecu- important than who did ‘it’. De Jonge suc- tion of the Jews, she serves as a stepping stone to ceeds in getting boys out of the house and lets other stories. The past year has seen the publication Biography them get their hands dirty, giving them some of two books in the Netherlands featuring true-life Harm de Jonge (b. 1940) is an author who actual experiences. Vuurbom is original, excit- accounts that are linked to the story of Anne Frank. occupies a special place in Dutch children’s ing, humorous, psychologically convincing and literature. He grew up during WWII and the well written. In Ondergedoken als Anne Frank, filmmaker Marcel Prins post-war reconstruction as the son of a barge and journalist Peter Henk Steenhuis wanted to present a captain who transported coal. He went on to more varied picture of Jews who went into hiding in the work as a Dutch teacher and taught and wrote Netherlands in WWII than the story told in that one world- about other writers for years. Since his debut famous diary. Anne was just one of the 28,000 Jews who in 1989 with Steenkuib is een rat, his oeuvre had to go into hiding in the Netherlands, and her place of has been devoted to creating the ultimate book Harm de Jonge continues to hiding was not typical. The Frank family were together, at for boys. His ‘contemporary’ books hark back one address, while most families were split up because the to the adventurous tranquillity of the rural, surprise and delight with the people who were sheltering them did not have enough room post-war northern Netherlands of his youth, to hide a whole family. Many family relationships were per- lending his work an appealing and distinctive same book again and again. manently damaged as a result of this lengthy separation; character. after the war, parents were reunited with children who were My favourite for a Gouden very different from the ones they had left behind, and young Griffel. Volkskrant children no longer recognised their mother and father. Starting with his own mother, Prins interviewed a num- ber of Jewish people who survived the war by going into hiding. The project began as a website featuring audio clips Author Harm de Jonge Never before has De Jonge A gripping series of portraits and illustrations (www.ondergedokenalsannefrank.nl, also in English and German). Prins and Steenhuis went on to pub- Age 10+ built up the tension so lish these testimonies in Andere Achterhuizen, a book for Pages 150 of young people during the adults, which they have now adapted for readers of ten and Publisher subtly. And rarely has he Van Goor darkest period of their lives.’ up. Ondergedoken als Anne Frank is a moving series of portraits of young people during the darkest period of their Contact for rights created characters who are Het Parool Geri Brandjes lives. Anne Frank appears in the book only [email protected] so memorable. Vrij Nederland once, in the story of Bloeme Emden, who knew Anne and Margot from the Joods Lyceum, the Jewish school. She saw them again in Westerbork. Bloeme was later transported to Auschwitz at the same time Finally, a proper book for boys: Vuurbom, by as the Frank family. Harm de Jonge, in which boys have old-fash- ioned fun jumping off railway bridges, collect- 10+ Your Best Friend, Anne ing stamps, playing with Fleischmann trains and making their own firebombs all by them- Jacqueline van Maarsen selves, without any help from the internet or mobile phones. And while they’re off doing that, their mothers are making the vanilla pud- In Je beste vriendin Anne, Jacqueline van Maarsen ding for Sunday lunch. Does that sound a bit writes about how she became friends with her class- slow? Definitely not when it’s Harm de Jonge mate Anne at the Joods Lyceum in October 1941. She who’s writing the story. had no idea why Anne liked her. ‘She talks nineteen to Jimmy Prins is in hospital with burns on his the dozen and I don’t say much.’ But a few days later, arm and a bandage on his head. He can’t see when Anne declared that she was her best friend, anything, but he has a visitor who comes every Jacqueline had to agree. day: Detective Ratelbuis, who makes a lot of Van Maarsen previously described her memories of noise by rattling his car keys on the metal bed her childhood for adults in Ik heet Anne, zei ze, Anne frame. Ratelbuis wants to know exactly what Frank, casting a new light on the famous diarist. Now happened that afternoon in the summer house children can also read about her story, in this concise when the bomb exploded. account of an intense friendship that ended abruptly Bram Bodaar, the dead boy who is the when the Frank family went into hiding in July 1942. Van focus of the story, is an arch-manipulator of Maarsen gives a very direct description of her childhood the most dangerous kind. He experiments with and paints a touching picture of two young Jewish girls, people. He steals Olivier’s medallion with the doing their homework together, playing Monopoly and picture of his dead mother in it, just to see how writing in each other’s friendship books. On her thirteenth A remarkable story that he’ll react. And then he calls it scientific birthday, Anne received the famous red-checked diary research. from her parents. ‘I’m going to write about you, too,’ she Pages Hidden Like allows you, for a mo­ Jimmy claims that he was the one who told Jacqueline. In her diary, she calls her friend Jopie, Anne Frank: 206 threw the bomb and killed Bram, but he can’t after their literary heroine Joop ter Heul. Many years later, Pages Your Best Friend, ment, to experience the remember any other details. However, Agnes, Anne’s father Otto Frank asked Van Maarsen to write the Anne: 146 his Moluccan nurse, doesn’t believe that foreword to the first edition of Het Achterhuis, the Dutch Publisher war from close up. [...] Querido Jimmy’s a murderer and she succeeds in get- title of the diary. Van Maarsen declined, as she had no Contact for rights an impressive historical ting his story out of him, little by little, ‘with a idea what she could add to Anne’s diary and wondered if Lucienne van der Leije voice as soft as a cleaning cloth’. anyone still wanted to read about the war. But perhaps to [email protected] account [...] very please Otto Frank, she wrote in a letter to him: ‘Maybe Rights sold Anne’s book might even become famous!’ German poignant.’ SevenDays

Children’s Books from Holland Page 14 Children’s Books from Holland Page 15 15+ Bajaar Julia, together with Momo, is the heart of this 15+ Barbed Wire small, serene story, which – in keeping with the subject matter – progresses as a penetrat- Martha Heesen ing adagio. Silently, they share the tragedy of Derk Visser the past, in which Momo is gradually losing herself, but which Bajaar the stray horse is helping Julia to escape from. For a long time, the reader remains in the dark about what happened during the war. Why Biography was Julia’s father taken by the Germans? Having won three Zilveren Griffels (De vloek van Cornelia, When did her mother die? Why were they Mijn zusje is een monster and Stekels) and the Gouden evacuated to Brabant? Biography Uil for Toen Faas niet thuis kwam (2003), Martha Heesen Julia’s memories, the vivid stories that she Derk Visser (b. 1959) works in child welfare, and is also (b. 1948) is undeniably one of the best children’s authors tells her sisters and Momo’s correspondence building up an outstanding, caustic and honest body of in the Netherlands. with the Red Cross missing persons depart- work as a writer, in which he courageously portrays young A strong psychological portrayal and evocative narra- ment gradually unfold to reveal her family his- people in a true-to-life manner. He made his debut with tive structure are characteristic features of Heesen’s writ- tory, which has been shaken by two wars. Patchouli, but his career really took off with the novellas ing. Her books are all about brooding, dreamy children. Heesen does not tell us everything, but Patatje oorlog and Landjepik. Critics view Prikkeldraad And yet her tone is light and sure-footed. that is the true strength of Bajaar: the strong, as his best book so far. evocative images and the rich, sensory ­descriptions say more than enough. ‘This is not our life. This is not even our There are few YA novels about unskilled young people in house. Whenever I wake up, I’m there again, grim, impoverished neighbourhoods. But Derk Visser really it’s then again – it’s still back then.’ It’s seems to have a preference for characters from disadvan- intriguing and rather melancholy – and it’s taged backgrounds. After his sharp novellas Patatje oorlog how the touching story of Julia begins, a and Landjepik, he has once again chosen to portray this thirteen-year-old who longs for the past, kind of teenager in his critically acclaimed Prikkeldraad, when her parents were still part of her life. but for the first time at greater length. Julia is the protagonist of Martha Heesen, a writer who, after nineteen years Everything rings true about the raw image that Visser and fourteen children’s books, has taken a evokes, without the slightest hint of contempt. Fifteen-­year- new path: Bajaar is most definitely a novel old Chelsea lives with her rebellious sister Jewel and their for young adults, set in the past and with an quarrelling parents in a flat above a entirely female cast, which is particularly bar, which their dad has been unusual for a writer who until recently spe- forced to close as a result of the cialised in writing books about headstrong smoking ban. The run-down local boys of about eleven years old – and re- supermarket, where her friends sit The young-adult Author ceived a great deal of praise for her work. at the tills, chewing gum, is destined Derk Visser However, Julia is no less unforgettable for the same fate. All of the hope- literature sensation Age 15+ that Heesen’s previous protagonists. Quite lessness and faded glory surround- Pages 189 the opposite, in fact. Using few words and ing the family is drowned in cheap of the year. Volkskrant Publisher measured sentences, Heesen skilfully pro- beer: ten six-packs a week. Gottmer vides insight into the innermost feelings of Chelsea’s coming of age takes Contact for rights a girl growing up in 1949 who passes her place in this bleak setting. Not in Renee Ferment Good books about [email protected] days with her five younger sisters and the intellectual manner that we’re Momo, her Belgian grandmother, living in accustomed to in so much teen disadvantaged isolation and poverty somewhere in the literature, but more in keeping with Brabant countryside. Her life is all about her working-class existence. She families are rare. waiting and hoping, against her own better flirts with her sister’s boyfriend, judgement, for news of her father, who has a sewage worker who rather rough- But Derk Visser been missing since the final days of WWII. ly takes her virginity on the kitchen table, and she dreams of a different writes them: sharp, life, even though she herself moving and without doesn’t know quite what that might mean. When she does reflect upon any condescension. herself, it’s often unobtrusive, as when she suddenly starts wonder- Trouw ing why adults never skip and then realises that she has stopped skip- ping too. It’s a telling observation. Magnificent [...] a beautifully The story takes a dramatic turn generation, predicts a great future for her as the new Dusty when Dad falls down the stairs and Springfield. layered and sensuous portrait ends up in a coma. Chelsea feels The scenes that follow are both sad and hilarious: Micky terribly guilty, mainly because she acts as though he’s the manager of a big star and even of a teenager who is older than was the only witness and everyone arranges a performance in a grimy football canteen, which her years. De Morgen suspects her of having pushed him. can only end in failure. And again there’s that sense of The pressure drives her out of the poignancy: Chelsea does not truly think that everything’s Author house and into the arms of the loser going to change, but she wants to believe that it will, even Martha Heesen Micky, who, as befits the X Factor though she really knows better. Age 15+ As in her previous books, Heesen Visser writes everything in direct, blunt language, un- Pages 124 compromising as only few writers dare to be, but he also Publisher succeeds in lending depth and knows how to move the reader, as when Chelsea tries Querido desperately to bring her father out of his coma, for example. Contact for rights emotional charge to her story Lucienne van der Leije With this book, Visser has proven that he is one of the best [email protected] with few words and in clear YA writers in the Netherlands. Rights sold German sentences. NRC Handelsblad

Children’s Books from Holland Page 16 Children’s Books from Holland Page 17 More than a hundred Dutch children’s Recent books are published in translation every year, by publishers all over the world. Depicted is a small selection of titles that have received financial support for the translation from the Dutch Foundation for Translations Literature. Please contact us if you are BoekieBoekie Children’s magazine since 1991 | 4 Volumes every year ­interested in publishing a Dutch book. With stories, poems, cartoons and things to do for children 8-13 years

Bibi Dumon Tak English edition het allerleukste tijdschrift voor kinderen | jaargang 20 | winter 201284 Simon van der Geest Soldier Bear German edition translated by Der Sommer, in dem Laura Watkinson ich berühmt werde for Eerdmans 86 (ohne dass meine het allerleukste tijdschrift voor kinderen | jaargang 21 | zomer 2012 Books, 2011. Eltern es merken) Original title: translated by Eva #84 MOONVIRUS Soldaat Wojtek, Schweikart for published by Oetinger, 2011. Querido, 2008. Original title: Geel gras, published by 85 het allerleukste tijdschrift voor kinderen | jaargang 21 | voorjaar 2012 Tonke Dragt Querido, 2009. #86 FOX TRICKS Paul Biegel Greek edition German edition Gramma gia ton Der Räuber Hupsika basilia translated translated by Eva by Maria Angelidou Schweikart for for Patakis, 2011. #85 FUN FAIR Martha Heesen Urachhaus, 2011. Original title: De French edition Original title: De rover brief voor de Moi, mon frère et le Hoepsika, published by koning, published nouveau translated by Holland, 1977. by Leopold, 1962. Emmanuèle Sandron for Thierry Magnier, 2011. Graphic novel about Reynard the Fox Original title: Mijn broer, de nieuwe en ik, published Marjolijn Hof by Querido, 2009. AGE 7+ vossen Streken Icelandic edition Minni líkur - meiri von translated Hans & Monique Hagen 48 PAGES from the Dutch by Jóna Dóra Chinese edition Oskarsdóttir. Ill.: Mál og Ni zui ke’ai translated by Publisher Autoped menning, 2011. Original title: Aurea Sison for Beijing Een kleine kans. Contact for rights Jet Manrho [email protected] Yuanliu Classic Culture, Querido, 2006. 2011. Original title: Jij bent de liefste, published by Querido, 2000. www.BoEK Ie-boekie.NL Annie M.G. Schmidt Azeri edition Maritgen Matter Pis¸ik qiz Minus ILLUSTRATION French edition translated by Lena Le mouton botté et le loup affamé WENDY PANDERS Sangin for Qanun, translated by Maurice Lomré for CalenDar Daan Remmerts de Vries 2011. Original title: #81 BoekieBoekie-Thinks L’école des loisirs, 2011. Original Arabic edition Minoes, published by Stories, poems, illustrations title: Schaap met laarsjes, Droomkonijn translated by De Arbeiderspers, anD School and things to do inspired by published by Querido, 2002. Iman Nafea for Sphinx, 2011. 1970. the works of Rodin. Original title: Droomkonijn, LookingPlanneR for a cheerful published by Querido, 2007. Annie M.G. Schmidt start to the week? English edition Tow-Truck Pluck Surprise yourself Rindert Kromhout translated by David Turkish edition Colmer for Querido, with the BoekieBoekie planner. The Askerler agˇlamaz 2011. Original title: translated by Burak contributions from children, poets and Pluk van de Petteflet, Sengir for Galata, Derk Visser published by 2012. Original title: German edition illustrators will inspire you all year Querido, 1971. Soldaten huilen Der schönste Ort round. The BoekieBoekie planner will niet, published by der Welt translated Leopold, 2010. by Rolf Erdorf for last a long time and can be used during Staudt Enterprises, 2011. Original title: the school year 2012-2013 and the 2013 Patatje oorlog, calendar year. published by Nieuw Amsterdam, 2007. Floortje Zwigtman Toon Tellegen German edition RIGHTS SOLD Serbian edition Adrian Mayfield – Auf Nedostajati translated Edward van de Vendel & Leben und Tod translated by Olivera Petrovic´ van Anoush Elman by Rolf Erdorf for TO SWEDEN der Leeuw for Apropo, Spanish edition Gerstenberg, 2011. >>> OPTION SPAIN <<< 2011. Original title: El chico que encontró la felicidad Original title: Misschien wisten zij translated by Gonzalo Fernández Spiegeljongen, published alles, published by for Ediciones SM, 2011. Original by De Fontein, 2010. BoekieBoekie is for Querido, 1995. title: De gelukvinder, published by Querido, 2008. everyone who loves to read, write and draw, but especially children from 8-13 years. Children’s Books from Holland Page 19

•BOLOGNA_04.indd 1 23-02-12 10:59 The Foundation

Dutch Foundation The Dutch Foundation for Literature stimulates interest for Literature in Dutch literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s Nieuwe Prinsengracht 89 1018 VR Amsterdam books by providing information and granting translation Tel. +31 20 520 73 00 subsidies. The foundation maintains contacts with Fax +31 20 520 73 99 a large number of international publishers, and has The Netherlands a stand at major international book fairs, including [email protected] www.letterenfonds.nl the Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair and the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna. Children’s Books Agnes Vogt, [email protected] Translation Grants Fiction Foreign publishers wishing to publish translations of Dutch Victor Schiferli, or Frisian literature, including children’s literature, quality [email protected] non-fiction and poetry, may apply for a subsidy towards the Barbara den Ouden, [email protected] translation costs. Having acquired the publishing rights to a Dutch or Non-Fiction Maarten Valken, Frisian literary work, the publisher’s application for a [email protected] ­subsidy must be accompanied by a copy of the contract Poetry between the foreign publisher and the owner of the Dutch Thomas Möhlmann, rights, and a copy of the contract with the translator. [email protected] Publishers must make use of specific application forms which are available from the foundation.

Picture Books In the case of high-quality illustrated children’s books, foreign publishers can apply for financial assistance to cover a proportion of the production costs. The amount granted is based on the direct production costs per copy. Subsidies granted under this scheme are funded by the Mondriaan Foundation and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

Considerations In deciding whether or not to grant a subsidy, the foundation takes account of the following considerations: – the literary quality of the book – the status of the publisher – the quality of the translator If the translator is unknown to the foundation, a sample translation is required. This will be evaluated by external advisors. The maximum possible subsidy is 70% of the total cost of translation. Applications for subsidies for translations which have already been published will not be considered.

Children’s Books from Holland is published by the Dutch Foundation for Literature. The bulletin is distributed free of charge to foreign publishers and editors. If you would like to receive Children’s Books from Holland, please contact [email protected]. Editors Dick Broer, Agnes Vogt Contributors Joukje Akveld, Pjotr van Lenteren, ederlands Postbus /PO Box 16588 Bas Maliepaard, Mirjam Noorduijn 1001 RB Amsterdam Translation N letterenfonds t +31 (0)20 520 73 00 Laura Watkinson f +31 (0)20 520 73 99 Photography dutch foundation [email protected] Stefanie Grätz for literature www.letterenfonds.nl Printing bezoekadres /visiting address Libertas, Bunnik Nieuwe Prinsengracht 89 Design 1018 VR Amsterdam Kummer & Herrman,