DOEI! TO COLOMBIA

The picture book that I got to make with the wonderful Marije Tolman, DOEI! (SEE YA!), has been sold to Colombia. The book will be issued in Spanish at Editorial Monigote. 
Originally the book was published with my home publishing house Querido in Amsterdam. 
It also has been sold, a little while ago, to Germany (Fischer Sauerländer). 
Other rights can be negociated here.

THE DEER TO TAIWAN

THIRTEEN RUNNING DEER (DERTIEN RENNENDE HERTJES), the book Mattias De Leeuw and I made for the Belgum company De Eenhoorn, was recently sold to Taiwan. Thus, it will be translated in what is called complex Chinese by Minya Lin. The Taiwanese publishing house will be Taiwan Interminds Publishing Inc.
The book came out in Germany (got a nomination for the German Literature Award 2015) and was also sold to China (mainland). 
More info on the rights can be found here.

PREVIEW SHORT MOVIE

The short movie that is based on my picture book ABOUT THE BOY WHO ATE AN OAKWOOD CHAIR has been shot. Now the editing starts. The movie (written and directed by Pieter Goethals for Creative Genes) will probably be released in the spring of 2016. Below you can take a look at a short 'making of', with English subtitles.

NINO IN KOREAN

THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD), the picture book that Anton Van Hertbruggen made (the text was mine), will soon be out in yet another language: Korean. The publishing house of Jiyangsa will publish it within a few weeks.

The book was already sold to Denmark, Germany, China, Brazil and the United States, where Publisher's Weekly last week chose it in their annual list of 'Best Books of the Year'.

The orginal publisher was De Eenhoorn, in Belgium.  

PICTUREBOOK TURNS INTO SHORT MOVIE

Some years ago I published a picture book, at publishing company De Eenhoorn, called VAN DE JONGEN DIE EEN EIKENHOUTEN STOELTJE AT - ABOUT THE BOY WHO ATE AN OAKWOOD CHAIR. The pictures were made by the well known, great artist Gerda Dendooven.

Actor Gauthier Castille gets wooden hands

Filmmaker Pieter Goethals has always been interested in turning this book into a short movie, and... now he does. Today, October 31st, 2015, the shooting of the movie began. Creative Genes is the producer and Pieter himself both wrote the script (which is based on the original story, but has a whole new twist) and will be directing. The movie is to be followed at their Facebookpage. It will probably be out in the first months of 2016.

For the translation rights to the picture book: check this page.

CHEER-UP BIRD TRAVELS TO TURKEY

It was already sold to the United States, Italy and Germany, but now the publishing house of Kuraldışı has bought the rights for Turkey of THE CHEER-UP BIRD, my book with the famous Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, originally published by Lemniscaat. 

CHEER-UP BIRD will be my first title in Turkish! 
Thank you to Elaine Michon, rights manager. And, of course, to Ingrid & Dieter for this wonderful cooperation.
 

NEW BOOK OUT

For years I've been adoring the work of artist Marleen Felius. Her work - main topic: cows and cattle - is known and valued all over the world. Her 'Cattle breeds encyclopedia' (text and images by Marleen) is a magnificent work of art and knowledge.
Finally we found a chance and the time to work together.  The result of this is the sweet and lifelike LITTLE CALF, LITTLE FOAL. Which is out now!

This book has a very, very simple text, which talks about the first hours and days of a newborn calf and those of a newborn foal. The pictures show it all: the first drinking, the standing-up, the first time they see the meadow. It's almost non-fictional (because, when Marleen Felius is involved, you know that everything is true to life and no mistakes are made!), but still a small story.

Thanks to publishing house De Eenhoorn and designer Dries Desseyn. A proof translation in English is available, and this is the foreign rights page of De Eenhoorn.

AUDIOBOOK NEWS

Soon my first audiobook in Dutch will be out. It's TOEN KWAM SAM (THEN THERE WAS SAM), and I narrated the book myself.
In the meantime my first audiobook in German (LENA UND DAS GEHEIMNIS DER BLAUEN HIRSCHE) is nominated for the German Audiobook-award - the BEO, Deutscher Kinderhörbuchpreis. Yesterday it was announced that the book, read by Anne Moll, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated by Rolf Erdorf and published by Gerstenberg (book) and Audiolino (audiobook), is on the shortlist.
More about the award and the shortlist: here.

Berlin: Literature Festival

One of the nicest, biggest and most impressive literature festivals in the world is the annual Literaturfestival in Berlin. It started this week. There will be many, many readings by many, many authors.
I was part of it in 2006 and 2011, and, I'm really happy about to say - this year again! I'll be present from the 12th til the 19th of September. I'll talk about my books THIRTEEN RUNNING DEER (DERTIEN RENNENDE HERTJES, in German issued as LENA UND DAS GEHEIMNIS DER BLAUEN HIRSCHE, with Mattias De Leeuw, Gerstenberg) and THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD, in German: DER HUND DEN NINO NICHT HATTE, with Anton Van Hertbruggen, Bohem Verlag, both books translated by Rolf Erdorf).
Take a look at the impressive list of authors that will be in Berlin. Amongst them: Peter Brown, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Jandy Nelson, David Almond, Sjoerd Kuyper and Kaatje Vermeire!
And check the programm here.

THE CHEER-UP BIRD IS FLYING ON

OPVROLIJKVOGELTJE (THE CHEER-UP BIRD) is the first picture book I got to make with the famous duo Ingrid & Dieter Schubert. It was published by Lemniscaat. The book was already sold to the United States (Lemniscaat USA) and Italy (Il Castello), and now the German rights are sold as well. To the publishing house of Fischer Sauerländer. Great!

NINO AWARDED IN THE US

Only a few days out now: the American-English translation of HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD, the picture book that Anton Van Hertbruggen and me made. THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE is the title, Laura Watkinson translated it, and Eerdmans published it. The book got some nice reviews, like the ones in Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.

But now there is an award! The Society of Illustrators once a year grants Golden and Silver Awards for 'the best books' and Anton gets one of the two Silver Medals! (The golden one is for Ji Hyeon Lee.) This is the list of previous winners.

In October, November and December the work of the winners is shown in the Society's museum in New York. More about that, and about the award is to be read here. Anton: Congrats!

NINO IS LISTED IN GERMANY

Every month thirty children's book-experts from Germany, Switzerland and Austria choose the best seven new children's books. These are announced by Deutschlandfunk.

In August the German translation of the book that Anton Van Hertbruggen and I made, HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD (THE DOG NINO DIDN'T HAVE) was one of the seven. The book is called DER HUND, DEN NINO NICHT HATTE in German, and was translated by Rolf Erdorf for Bohem Press. More info on the list: here.

Originally the book came out at De Eenhoorn, Belgium. It already got the French Prix Sorcières, the Dutch Golden Palet and the Flemish Boekenpauw Award.

The book came out in China, France, Germany, Denmark and will shortly be published in the United States and Brazil.

SAM IN AFRIKAANS

A little while ago my book TOEN KWAM SAM (THEN THERE WAS SAM, Querido, Amsterdam, 2011) came out in ten offical languages of the Republic of South-Africa. The only language missing was Afrikaans.

Now the official translation into Afrikaans, published by Protea Boekhuis, is available. The book, with stunning illustrations by Philip Hopman, was translated by Daniel Hugo. The title of the book is EN TOE KOM TOM. (Yes, indeed, Sam turned into Tom).

After the ten other languagues of South-Africa, and after the Estonian and German version, this is the 13th foreign edition. And this fall, the French Sam will be next.
Thanks to all publishers and to Querido's foreign rights manager Luciënne van der Leije.

CHEER-UP BIRD

My newest picture book, OPVROLIJKVOGELTJE, with the fantastic Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, was out a few weeks ago in the Netherlands and Belgium. In English this title translates to CHEER-UP-BIRD. Just now we heard that this book is already sold to two countries: to the United States (Lemniscaat USA) and to Italy (Il Castello). Really nice!

AUDIOBOOK-LONGLIST

Anne Moll is the voice on my first audiobook, the one that was made by Audiolino of the German translation (by Rolf Erdorf) of my book THIRTEEN RUNNING DEER (DERTIEN RENNENDE HERTJES), under the German title LENA UND DAS GEHEIMNIS DER BLAUEN HIRSCHE. The paper version was released last year by Gerstenberg and the wonderful pictures are by Mattias De Leeuw.
Now the audiobook is put on the longlist for the German 'Kinderhörbuchpreis' (Audiobook-award), the BEO 2015. The complete longlist can be found here.
The shortlist will be published in September and the winner will be announced in November. Nice news!

SAM IS OUT IN ESTONIA

Last year the Estonian publishing company Päike ja Pilv bought the Estonian rights to six of my books. Translator Kerti Tergem has been working hard and hard and hard, because every half a year one of the books will be published.

This week the first one is out. It's KOER NIMEGA SAM, the Estonian translation of TOEN KWAM SAM (THEN THERE WAS SAM). Illustrator Philip Hopman and me are really proud to see this book in Estonia and I'm quite lucky to do so, soon, in person: at the end of May I'll be attending the fantastic HeadRead-festival in Tallinn. 

Thanks to publisher Katrin Reinmaa and translator Kerti Tergem, and the support of the Dutch Literary Fund.

THE CANCERCHAMPIONSHIP FOR JUNIORS GOES TO GERMANY

The book is not even out yet, but already publishing house Carlsen bought the German rights of THE CANCERCHAMPIONSHIP FOR JUNIORS (HET KANKERKAMPIOENSCHAP VOOR JUNIOREN), the book that is based on all the interviews I did with Roy Looman (20), about his lifestory: getting cancer at an early age, and at the same time having friends, kissing girls, working at the supermarket, caring about your little brothers.

The book, with its direct, uninhibited tone will be out in april this year in Holland, and one year later in German, translated by Rolf Erdorf.
Both me and Roy are very pleased!

THE OKAPI-BOOK IS OUT THERE!

The book in defense of the lovely okapi that I made with illustrator Martijn van der Linden is out now. We worked for years on this 160-page-non-fiction book, and it became a book through which we try to convince all of our readers that the should take the okapi to their new favourite animal. And in the book we provide the reader with 88 reasons for doing so. I'm really happy that we could work so long on this book and that our publishing house Querido let us do so, and let us make a book in full-colour and with a beautiful design. Thanks. We are really proud.

NOMINATION FOR THE GERMAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD!

Wonderful news: it was announced yesterday that the German translation of my book DERTIEN RENNENDE HERTJES (THIRTEEN RUNNING DEER) is nominated for the prestigious German Youth Literature Award (Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis).

The book came out at Gerstenberg in a flawless translated by Rolf Erdorf. The exuberant pictures were made by Mattias De Leeuw. In October (Oct 16th), during the Frankfurt Bookfair, the winners will be known.

Thanks for all who contributed to this book and congratulations to all the other nominees. More info is to be found here.

NINO and the MACHINES are flying on

French NINO, with Prix Sorcières-sticker!

Two new translations coming up!
First of all the Danish rights for FEEST VOOR DE MACHINES (A PARTY FOR THE MACHINES), the wonderful picture book Liesbeth De Stercke made, were sold to Turbine Forlag. Great!

And there will also be another HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD (THE LITTLE DOG NINO DIDN'T HAVE). Rights were already sold to Germany (Bohem Press), China (Petrel), Denmark (Turbine), the United States (Eerdmans) and France (Didier Jeunesse), but now the book will travel to Brazil. Publishing house Pulo do Gato will issue the book in Brazilian Portuguese.

NINO is the book I made with illlustrator Anton Van Hertbruggen. He already got the Boekenpauw (highest Belgium award) and the Gulden Palet (highest Dutch award) for it, and recently the book got the French Prix Sorcières!
Both books were initially published by the Flemish publishing house De Eenhoorn.

NINO WINS THE FRENCH PRIX SORCIÈRES

THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (or in Dutch: HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD), my picture book with the amazing young Belgian artist Anton Van Hertbruggen just came out in China, which is great.

But even greater is the latest news: the French translation by Marie Hooghe, LE CHIEN QUE NINO N'AVAIT PAS, is awarded with the Prix Sorcières, an annual prize, organised by the ALSJ (Association des Librairies Spécialisées Jeunesse) and the ABF (Association des Bibliothécaires de France).

In the 'album' category past winners have been artists by the likes of Wolf Erlbruch, Anthony Browne, David Wiesner and Peter Sís - and now it's our book. We are so grateful!
Congratulations also to the translator and to our French company Didier Jeunesse.

GERMANY AND CHINA: NEW BOOKS

The year took off with some new translations of my books.
It's three new ones in China! Petrel Publishing House issued THE DOVE THAT COULDN'T DIVE (DE DUIF DIE NIET KON DUIKEN), my book with Alain Verster, ONE MILLION BUTTERFLIES (EEN MILJOEN VLINDERS), with Carll Cneut, and GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY (WELTERUSTEN IEDEREEN), with Sebastiaan Van Doninck.
All three books were originally published by De Eenhoorn, in Belgium, and now translated by Sun Yuan.

ONE MILLION BUTTERFLIES was previously released in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Georgia, Taiwan and South-Africa.
THE DOVE THAT COULDN'T DIVE in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Taiwan and rights were bought for Italian.
GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY was also published in Taiwan.

In Germany DER HUND, DEN NINO NICHT HATTE came out. It's Rolf Erdorfs translation for Bohem Press of HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD (THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE), which is already available in French and Danish, and will be published in China and the United States as well.
I got to make this book with Anton Van Hertbruggen, and also this one was originally published by De Eenhoorn.