Little Fox, Little Fox...

Our book Little Fox (in Dutch: Vosje) continues to surprise us. With 'us' I mean illustrator Marije Tolman and myself. Apart from the recent fifth print run for the Dutch edition there was a second print run, within a few months, in France, and today we got the news that the book will travel to its seventh country.

After Russia, France, Germany, Italy, the US and Iran the book will be made translated into Macedonian. At the new publishing house of Chudna Suma!
The book was orginially published by Querido, Amsterdam. Further rights can be negociated here.

Sam to a brand new language...

Dutch version of book two

I wrote two books about a big, dreamy, almost magical white dog, called Sam. The first book was A dog like Sam (2011) and the second one Sam in winter (2012). The illustrations were by the awesome Philip Hopman and the original publishing company was Querido.

French version of the first book

The books were sold to the US, to France, Germany, Estonia and South-Africa, but now there's a whole new language for the Sam-adventures: the publishing house of Petrkov bought the rights for the Chech versions of the books. I am very happy that both books will be published in Chech Republic next year!

Thank you very much, Petr Novotný!

New books travelling to the United States

Fantastic news: the new publishing house of Levine Querido, directed by the legendary Arthur Levine will devote a small segment of its program to books that were originally published by Querido Amsterdam. I'm really, really proud to announce that already in the company's first programs two of my books will be presented.

First of all the book I made with Marije Tolman will be translated. It's called Vosje which in the US-version will be Red Fox. David Colmer will be translating. This English edition succeeds the French, German, Russian and Italian editions.

But that's not the only book Levine Querido will publish. In the spring of 2012 there will be an English version of my Young Adult novel about the first passionate love between Tycho and Oliver, two eighteen year old European boys, who meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The book, which will be called Days of Bluegrass Love, (in Dutch: De dagen van de bluegrassliefde) was first published in 1999, with an updated version in 2015. Besides the United States the book will also be published in Latvia soon, by the way. I'm so thrilled by all this! Thanks to everyone involved.

The English SUPER GUPPY is out now

In 2003 Superguppie was published, by Querido, in The Netherlands and Flanders, and now, sixteen years later, it's out in the United Kingdom! It was translated for The Emma Press as Super Guppy - by the great David Colmer, who translated two other poetry volumes of mine into English as well.

Of course the illustrations are still by Fleur van der Weel, who gave my short poems a continuous sparkle. Superguppie was also translated into French and German.


The book could be ordered here (The Netherlands) and here (UK) or here (USA etc).

LITTLE FOX is awarded - twice!

Halfway the month of June of every year the most important Dutch children's books prizes are announced. In several category's books are awarded as the best children's books of the year.

This year illustrator Marije Tolman and me were both awarded for our book Little Fox (Vosje). Marije got a Silver Pencil for her images and I got a Silver Slate for the text. We are humbled by the idea that both the jury's saw our book as one of the most outstanding. We are also very happy with all the colleagues that we are sharing this honour with.

Little Fox is the story of the first months of a baby fox, who dreams up his past and is uncertain of his future. The book was published by Querido, Amsterdam and is sold to Russia, France, Germany and Italy, with new countries to be announced soon. Rights can be negociated here.

LITLLE FOX goes to Italy

The book that Marije Tolman and me made, about the first months of a tiny fox cub, Vosje ('Little Fox') was recently sold to Italy. The publishing house of Il Castoro will issue the Italian translation. Thanks very much, I am looking forward to this version. And quite happy to have a second book with this fine company, after Sofia e i pinguini.

Vosje was previously sold to Russia (KompasGuide), German (Gerstenberg) and French (Albin Michel). Other rights can be negociated at the original publishing house in The Netherlands, at Querido (Luciënne van der Leije).

Vasco will travel to Spain

Alain Verster and I made two picture books about the sweetest pig in the wolrd: Vasco, who loves to play football just as much as his best friend, the boy Matteo.
Those books were: Vasco the soccer pig and Vasco and the green monster. Both books were originally published by De Eenhoorn in Belgium.

The first book was already sold to China and Brazil and now the Barcelona-based company of Thule Ediciones bought the Spanish rights. Thank you very much - and we are looking forward to the Spanish edition!

Three more translations

It's always mail that writers love to read: those in which the rights manager of your publishing company tells us that there will be another foreign edition of one of your books.
At the end of December illustrator Anton Van Hertbruggen and me heard that there will be a Slovenian edition of our book The dog that Nino didn't have (Het hondje dat Nino niet had, originally issued by De Eenhoorn). It will be published by Sodobnost. Thanks so much, we're happy!

The book that Marije Tolman and me made, Little Fox, found several publishers in Germany (4) and France (3) interested. After the book already was being sold to Russia, we are now happy to announce that the French edition will be published by Albin Michel and the German by Gerstenberg. We are so looking forward to seeing these new editions, thanks, publishers, and thanks Luciënne van der Leije, Querido's foreign rights manager, for this cheerful news!