Children’s Books from Holland ederlands N letterenfonds dutch foundation for literature Spring 2017 2 Children’s Books from Holland The Netherlands’ major awards for children’s books Woutertje Pieterse Golden Slate Prize Pencil Silver Slate Pencil Stem op de okapi Gips Edward van de Vendel & Martijn van der Linden (Querido) Anna Woltz (Querido) Golden Paint Silver Paint Brush Brush Lettersoep Hondje, de enige echte Harriët van Reek (Querido) Yvonne Jagtenberg (Rubinstein) 3 Children’s Books from Holland Silver Slate Pencils Silver Slate Pencils Silver Slate Pencils Silver Slate Pencils Up to 6 years: From 6 years up: From 9 years up: Poetry: Kom uit die kraan! Mooi boek Groter dan de lucht, erger dan de zon Nooit denk ik aan niets Tjibbe Veldkamp & Joke van Leeuwen Daan Remmerts de Vries (Querido) Monique and Hans Hagen & Alice Hoogstad (Lemniscaat) (Querido) Charlotte Dematons (Querido) Silver Slate Pencils Informative: Tijs en de eenhoorn De tuin van de walvis Een aap op de wc Rond vierkant vierkant rond Imme Dros & Toon Tellegen & Annemarie van Joukje Akveld & Martijn van der Linden Ted van Lieshout (Leopold) Harrie Geelen (Querido) Haeringen (Querido) (Hoogland & Van Klaveren) Golden Frame Dioraphte From 12 years up: Jongeren literatuurprijs From 15 years up: Oliver De IJsmakers Edward van de Vendel (Querido) Ernest van der Kwast (De Bezige Bij) 4 Children’s Books from Holland Floor Rieder Floor Rieder (b. 1985) won the Golden Author/illustrator Floor Rieder Paint Brush, the country’s most prestig- Age 4+ Pages 22 Where Is Ludwig? ious illustration prize for children’s books, Publisher Gottmer/CPNB with her debut Het raadsel van alles wat Contact leeft (written by Jan Paul Schutten, Ingrid van der Mooren published in English as The Mystery [email protected] of Life). Rights sold Chinese (Postwave Publishing) Her first picture book is also a great hit. This has the shape of a concertina book and, on the front and back, tells two mirrored stories. In the first, a woman is walking down the street, looking for her cat, while in the second you can see what the cat is getting up to inside the neigh- bours’ houses. The book looks like a house, while folded out it becomes a street, drawn in Rieder’s distinctive graphic style with ‘dirty’ colours. Jokes are hidden within the details, turning Rieder’s stunning illustra- tions into layered pictures with plenty to look for and find. Groundbreaking and stunning. – NRC Handelsblad A beautiful concertina book, in which Rieder’s distinctive robust style comes into its own. – Trouw Maranke Rinck & First there was the innovative Author Marancke Rinck Memorykonijn (published in English as Illustrator Martijn van der Linden Martijn van der Linden Age 4+ The Other Rabbit), a picture book based Pages 52 Tangram Cat on the famous memory game, and now Publisher Lemniscaat Maranke Rinck (b. 1976) and Martijn van Contact der Linden (b. 1979) have come up with Sascha Duijvestijn a playful way to turn the Chinese tangram [email protected] puzzle into a book. Rights sold Catalonian (Ekaré), Chinese With no more than seven puzzle pieces, (Tomorrow Publishing House), illustrator Van der Linden conjures up a French (Kaleidoscope), Spanish procession of animals in a wide range of (Ekaré) different poses. Rinck has written a light-hearted and amusing story about animals chasing after each other. Children can use the real tangram pieces at the back of the book to copy the animals and make up their own stories. A surprisingly ingenious and playful book that will cheer and delight its readers. Incredibly original (…) The best picture book of 2016. – De Volkskrant Not only terribly ingenious and exceptionally beautiful, but also great fun. – NRC Handelsblad 5 Children’s Books from Holland Philip Hopman Before Philip Hopman (b. 1961) became Author/illustrator Philip Hopman an illustrator, he briefly studied fashion. Age 4+ Pages 32 Hubert de Givenchy – voor Audrey met liefs Hubert de Givenchy – Publisher Leopold for Audrey with Love (Hubert de Givenchy – for Audrey with Contact Love) combines both of these passions. Lucienne van der Leije [email protected] This picture book about the famous Rights sold couturier and his muse is part of the series English (Nord-Süd), French (Versant of art-related books created by the Sud), Russian and Ukranian Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and gave (Artbooks) Hopman the opportunity to go to town with his illustrations of classic suits and elegant dresses. He also zooms in on Givenchy’s relationship with actress Audrey Hepburn, whose film costumes he designed. Hopman prepared himself thoroughly; his elegant, stylish illustrations are full of local colour. This is a beautiful and very personal interpretation of a glorious piece of Once again, Hopman excels in fashion and film history. several ways in this book: in his human figures, in his city scenes and in the portraits: Audrey and Hubert really come to life. – Edward van de Vendel Hopman has a fabulous drawing style that immediately transports you to the Hepburn era. – Boekhopper Bibi Dumon Tak & On the day Sien leaves, the sky is pitch Author Bibi Dumon Tak black. The cloud from which this won- Illustrator Annemarie van Annemarie van Haeringen Haeringen derfully beautiful picture book develops Age 6+ Sien’s Heaven is also pitch black. Pages 32 Publisher Querido With a fragile white line, Annemarie van Contact Haeringen (b. 1959) sketches the basket Lucienne van der Leije [email protected] where the dog takes her last breath. Gradually, more colour slips into the Rights sold pages, the black cloud takes on the shape German (Gerstenberg), English of a dog, and room for comfort and (Eerdmans) consolation is created. Bibi Dumon Tak (b. 1964) wrote this tale in small sentences with great power and eloquence, creating a brave story about loss and mourning. Van Haeringen came up with an entirely new visual language to express grief. A sublime picture book. – Trouw Exceptionally beautiful [...] With adult gravity, Dumon Tak writes for children. – NRC Handelsblad 6 Children’s Books from Holland Dolf Verroen War and Friendship Poignant memories of a difficult wartime friendship It is, of course, no coincidence that the within small observations and comments: Dolf Verroen (b. 1928) is a grand boy on the front of Oorlog en vriendschap ‘I thought Mr Millenaar would say some- old man of Dutch children’s literature. His first children’s book (War and Friendship) wears exactly the thing about the raid, but he just started came out in 1957 and sixty years same distinctive round glasses as the with grammar as usual.’ later he has more than a hundred 88-year-old author Dolf Verroen. The Sometimes the danger comes close to titles to his name, a number of which protagonist may be called Joop, but his home, as when a neighbour is shot in a have won Zilveren Griffel awards. experiences are the wartime memories Nazi reprisal. Verroen writes about this His books have been translated into English, German, Italian, Basque, of Verroen himself. incident plainly and honestly. Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Spanish, Then Joop discovers that his friend Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, While many children’s books about the Kees’s parents are members of the NSB, Papiamento and Hindi. His biggest Second World War focus on excitement the Dutch national-socialist movement, a international success is the book and adventure, Verroen writes quietly political party that collaborated with the Hoe mooi wit ik ben (How Beautifully White I Am), which won about the life of an ordinary, rather shy Nazis in the war. He’s shocked, but he still prizes including the Deutscher little boy, who does not play a heroic role. wants to stay friends with Kees. Jugendliteraturpreis and the Italian The war is something that happens to Verroen makes it easy to identify with Premio Nazionale di Letteratura per Joop and, as an eleven-year-old, he has to Joop’s dilemma. For example, when Joop’s ragazzi ‘Città di Bella.’ cope with it as best he can. This passivity mother hisses at him to keep walking is a strong basis for the book and, histori- when they see Kees: ‘I wanted to yell, to Author Dolf Verroen Illustrator Charlotte Dematons cally speaking, a realistic one. tear myself away. I did nothing. I walked Age 10+ War and Friendship, then, does not rely past him as if he were a stranger.’ Pages 96 on suspense for its impact, but on the Dolf Verroen wrote this gem as the gift Publisher Leopold/CPNB personal, perfect tone in which Verroen book for the annual Children’s Book Week Contact writes. The brief chapters, with atmos- in the Netherlands. In October 2016, an Lucienne van der Leije [email protected] pheric black-and-white miniatures by astounding 345,000 copies were distrib- Charlotte Dematons, concisely describe uted and the book was very positively Rights sold scenes from day-to-day life in wartime received by the critics. German (Freies Geistesleben) Holland, with the real drama concealed The greatest asset of War and Friendship is Verroen’s unemotional tone, the small sentences that embody a life. – NRC Handelsblad War and Friendship hits the bullseye. – Het Parool 7 Children’s Books from Holland Koos Meinderts To the North A hard-hitting story about children fleeing from starvation in WWII Naar het noorden (To the North) is set than a balloon. One tiny breath of wind Koos Meinderts (b. 1953) has in the winter of 1944–1945, the winter and he would float away.’ written more than fifty books, including picture books like of starvation, and the book makes an Their parents decide to send Jaap, De vuurtoren (The Lighthouse), immediate impact.