This hippo got awarded

My last book of poems, What to do when you trip over a hippo, a book that I made with the splendid illustrator Martijn van der Linden, got lucky this fall.

First of all it got two awards at the annual Dutch book prizes carroussel. It received both a Silver Slate (for the text) and a Silver Pencil (for the illustrations). As a result it's now among the books that are highlighted in all bookshops during the children's book week (beginning of October).

And another suprise: we recently heard the book has also been chosen as one of the international White Ravens for 2020! 

Thank you, dear juries! Oh, and publishers: the Dutch Literary Fund is promoting the book here. Some sample translations into English by David Colmer can be found here.

Ulf Stark posthumously honoured

Thanks dear Estonia - on your soil I met the great writer Ulf Stark (during this fantastic festival HeadRead) - and from there I got the opportunity to translate some of his books. 

The most beautiful of all are, of course, The little book of love (in Dutch: Liefde is niet voor lafaards) and The Runaways, first published by Lilla Piratförlaget in Sweden (Erik Titusson). 

Today it was announced that the Dutch translation of The Runaways, De weglopers, got two honorary mentions (Vlag & Wimpel) at our annual award ceremony, both for the illustrations (by the awesome Kitty Crowther) and for the text. 

So: thanks jury, thanks dear Swedes, to have us translate this book, thanks Querido, who published the book in The Netherlands and Flanders, and thanks dear, dear Ulf - so lucky that I got to meet you in what later proved to be one of your last years. The Runaways is in my eternal children's book top five. And even though this award is given to you posthumously, more translations will follow!

Photo Ulf Stark: Caroline Andersson

Little Fox' newest country

That's a first: a book sold for the Slovakian language. I'm delighted that Little Fox, the book Marije Tolman and I made, travels to its tenth country, and that it's publishing house IKAR in Bratislava who bought the rights. Ďakujem!

Previously the book got sold for these languages:
Russian (KompasGuide)
German (Gerstenberg)
French (Albin Michel)
Italian (Il Castoro)
English (USA) (Levine Querido)
Iran (Read My World)
Macedonian (Chudna Suma)
Spanish (Argentina) (Adriana Hidalgo/Pípala)
Slovenian (Sanje).


By the way: recently the Persian version came out (see picture). Translated by Toba Saberi.

More rights can be negotiated at the original publisher, Querido: here (rights agent: Luciënne van der Leije).

Once again: thank you very much!

Nomination ALMA

Happy to announce that for 2021 I will be nominated again for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). I'm really proud to be nominated by IBBY The Netherlands, alongside illustrator Annemarie van Haeringen, the Internationale Jugendbibliothek München and author Aidan Chambers. Impressive company and again, lots of thanks - (again, because there were previous nominations in 2011, 2012, 2019 and 2020).

Bluegrass Love in Latvia

A while ago the rights were sold, but now the physical book has been published: the translation into Latvian of The days of bluegrass love, my first young adult novel about the true, lifechanging love between Tycho Zeling and Oliver Kjelsberg.

In Latvia the book is called Zilās zāles vasara, it is published by the great publishing house of Liels un Mazs and translated by Dens Dimiņš.
The beautiful cover illustration is by Elīna Brasliņa.

I'm really proud that this book found its way to Latvia, a country that I have visited quite a few times, and that I am really fond of. I hope the book will now find its way to young Latvian readers. It can be ordered here.

Next year the American translation will be published by Levine Querido. Inquiries for new rights can be done here (Luciënne van der Leije, rights manager), and here you can find a special of the Dutch Literature Fund about this book. 

Little Fox travels to yet another country

The book Marije Tolman and I made about a little fox cub, Vosje, has already been sold to eight countries. Now the ninth language is confirmed - Vosje will be published in Slovenia, at the publishing house of Sanje.
We are both very happy with this news.

So far Vosje travelled to
Germany, France, the United States, Italy, Russia, North-Macedonia, Argentina (Spanish world rights) and Iran.
Other rights can be negotiated here.

Little Fox in Spanish

Little Fox, The book that I got to make with illustrator Marije Tolman at my publishing house Querido, is traveling to yet another language. Spanish world rights were sold to the Argentinian publisher Adriana Hidalgo/Pípala, who published more books by Marije Tolman.

We were delighted to hear about this new life for Little Fox, after the Russian, German, Italian, French, Macedonian, Persian and English (USA) editions. A big thank you to rights manager Luciënne van der Leije at Querido. 

In the meantime the German version, Der kleine Fuchs, translated by Rolf Erdorf, will soon come out at Gerstenberg Verlag. Looking forward!