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. 

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.

NOMINATED FOR THE HCA

Ooh - this just happened: I will be nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award. This (quote) is 'the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator of children's books. Every other year IBBY presents the Andersen Award to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. The Author's Award has been given since 1956 and the Illustrator's Award since 1966. The Award consists of a gold medal and a diploma, presented at a festive ceremony during the biennial IBBY Congress.'

Each year almost 30 authors and 30 illustrators are nominated. The last years saw Dutch author Ted van Lieshout and Marit Törnqvist shortlisted!.
For 2018 the Dutch IBBY (International Board on Books for Young people) also chose fantastic illustrator Thé Tjong-Khing as a nominee.
I'm very thankful for this nomination, and honoured. It's a delight! Thanks to the Dutch IBBY-section, and to my wonderful publishing houses Querido and De Eenhoorn.