First travel for Maths for life

The book that I got to write with Ionica Smeets and that Floor de Goede illustrated, Maths for Life - about a school class that gets to ask maths questions that resonate with their own daily reality - is now going to travel. The first country that bought the rights is... Serbia. We are very happy the book will be published by the beautiful publishing house of Odiseja. 

The book was published in Dutch by Nieuwezijds and the rights were negociated by Elaine Michon. (This is also where a sample translation into English is to be found).

Another starred review

Two weeks before its publication day in the United States, The days of bluegrass love, the English translation by Emma Rault of my young adult novel De dagen van de bluegrassliefde, got another starred review. Some weeks ago Kirkus gave it a star, and this time it's Booklist that stars the book as well: reviewer Michael Cart writes 'superb novel', 'beautifully written,' 'unforgettable characters', and he adds this brilliant final line of the review: 'First published in the Netherlands, this book has become a classic in Europe. It should absolutely become the same here.' 

Read the full review here. I'm incredibly proud to have this book in English after 23 (!) years. Thank you, Levine Querido, for taking it under your wing. I hope it will do you proud.

Starry

May 17th: that will be the worldwide English publication date for The days of bluegrass love, the English translation by Emma Rault of my young adult novel De dagen van de bluegrassliefde. My American publisher in the United States made a beautiful new cover design, which we will use for the upcoming Dutch print run as well. 

I'm incredibly proud to have this book in English after 23 (!) years. De dagen van de bluegrassliefde was first published in 1999, and became a bit of a classic. The book is still in print. It's about the love story between Tycho from Holland and Oliver from Norway. In 2006 Ons derde lichaam ('Our third body') was published, which talks about Tycho in the year after his bluegrass love year, and in 2015 there was Oliver, the novel about Oliver in Norway two years prior to Bluegrass. Both these books will come out in a new cover design in The Netherlands this summer.

So - we still have to wait til the month of May. But last week the famous review site Kirkus Reviews already published its judgement. Read here what it said, but... we got a starred review! And this: 'Van de Vendel's writing is poetic, intensely emotional, and sensitively philosophical in this beautiful translation by Rault.' Wow!

Yet another country...

Another Monday, another country for our Little Fox book (in Dutch: Vosje). The book, with its magnificent art work by Marije Tolman, will be published in China. A big thank you to the publishing house of Jieli!

Little Fox traveled to the United States, Argentina, Slovenia, North-Macedonia, Germany, France, Italy, Iran, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia and Turkey before. It was originally published by Querido in Amsterdam, and rights can be negociated with Querido's rights manager Luciënne van der Leije.Thanks also to agent Yuming Kao!

LITTLE FOX travels to...

Wow - the twelfth country for our Little Fox book (in Dutch: Vosje) is confirmed. The book, with its beautiful, beautiful art work by Marije Tolman, will be published in Turkey. A big thank you to the publishing house of MEAV!

Little Fox traveled to the United States, Argentina, Slovenia, North-Macedonia, Germany, France, Italy, Iran, Lithuania, Russia and Slovakia before. It was originally published by Querido in Amsterdam, and rights can be negociated with Querido's rights manager Luciënne van der Leije.Thanks also to The Black Cat Agency!

 

An award for Gloei

Wow, this is awesome: every second year IBBY (International Board on Books for Young people) composes the Honour List, an 'overview of children's and youth books of outstanding quality'. Every country within IBBY chooses one book for each of the three categories. In the category 'text' the Dutch jury picked Gloei, my book with poems and interviews with young LGBTQIA+-people. I made this book together with illustrator Floor de Goede. It was published by Querido, Amsterdam.

The winning books will be on display during several book fairs, and will permanently be shown in for example the Honour-Listcollection of the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich.

In the illustration category the wonderful Alfabet, by Charlotte Dematons, was awarded. Click here for the full list. 

LITTLE FOX goes to...

Lovely news - the eleventh country for our Little Fox book (in Dutch: Vosje) is confirmed. The book, with its beautiful, beautiful art work by Marije Tolman, will be published next year in Lithuania. I'm so proud to have my first book in the Lithuanian language. A big thank you to the publishing house of Nieko Rimto!

Little Fox traveled to the United States, Argentina, Slovenia, North-Macedonia, Germany, France, Italy, Iran, Russia and Slovakia before. It was originally published by Querido in Amsterdam, and rights can be negociated with Querido's rights manager Luciënne van der Leije.