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. 

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.

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!

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, 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).

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!

LITTLE FOX off to Russia

The book that Marije Tolman (a wizard of an artist!) and I made, and that was published at Querido, Amsterdam a few months ago: Vosje ('Little Fox') is making some waves abroad. Several countries are interested, and we are very grateful for that fact.
More is to be revealed soon, but today we heard that Vosje's first trip is confirmed: it will be published in Russia. The publishing house of KompasGuide bought the rights. Thank you very much!

Thanks also to Querido's foreign right's manager, Luciënne van der Leije, who can be reached here.

I'LL ROOT FOR YOU to Spain

Enjoyable news: my poetry volume I'll root for you (original Dutch title: Ik juich voor jou) will be published in Spanish. The publishing house of Barbara Fiore bought the rights of this collection of poems about animals and sports that I wrote to the magnificent illustrations by Wolf Erlbruch.

The book was originally issued by Querido, Amsterdam and was published in the United States (this summer) by Eerdmans, wonderfully translated by David Colmer. It received the bi-annual Golden Poetry Medal for the best children's poetry book in The Netherlands and Flanders.
Now I'm really happy this book will see the Spanish light as well!

To other publishers: a full English ánd German translation of all poems is available at Querido - please mail Luciënne van der Leije.

SUPER GUPPY in the UK

Happy to anounce that there will be a third poetry volume in English next year - this time it's my poems for very young children that will be translated by the great David Colmer. The lovely house of The Emma Press in Birmingham, United Kingdom will publish Super Guppy, a translation of Superguppie, the book that illustrator Fleur van der Weel and I made in 2003.

The book was originally issued by Querido in Amsterdam, and got several awards, including the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs (critic's award) and a Zilveren Griffel (best books of the year).
Earlier translations were the French one (Super Gloupi, Éditions Être) and the German one (Superguppy, Boje Verlag).

Other translations of my poetry are The sexy storm (A midsummer night's press, USA, 2018) and I'll root for you (Eerdmans, USA, 2018), both translated by David Colmer as well. The latter poetry collection got a starred Kirkus review.

SAM IN WINTER - HONOR BOOK

The Poetry House in Paterson, US every year awards the books for children with the Paterson Prize for Young People. The 2018 award was won by Ruth Freeman for her book One good thing about America, but I'm proud to say that my book Sam in winter (Dutch: De raadsels van Sam) was one of the three honor books for this category. Thank you, jury and professional readers! The book was translated by the great David Colmer.

Sam in winter was published by Eerdman's, with the original illustrations by Philip Hopman. The book was orginally published by Querido, Holland, and is also translated into
French, German and Estonian.

THE BOY THAT SKATED WITH THE ANIMALS - out now

I have been friends with ex-speedskater Beorn Nijenhuis for over ten years. And his athlete story is perfect for a children's book: growing up as a Canadian kid, skating in winter at his family's own lake, eventually becoming a professional speedskater starting for The Netherlands at the Olympics in Torino, Italy, 2006. Sanne te Loo made Beorns story into a wonderfully warmhearted document and Maarten Deckers did the book design. The book has little text, is based on Beorns life story and answers questions like: is the future athlete already part of the 8-year old boy, and vice versa?

The book was published by Querido and is in stores now. It can be read by kids from eight years and up. (Or read to kids from six years and older).

Below: a sample of some of the illustrations!

 

 

Macedonia again

The Macedonian publishing house Ars Lamina didn't only buy the rights to HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD, they also bought the translation rights to DOEI! (SEEYA!), the picture book Marije Tolman and I made for Querido, a while back.
I'm really excited to have two titles in Macedonia soon, and I really wouldn't mind visiting the country in the future, haha!

DOEI! was also issued in Spanish (Colombia) and German and talks about Maartje who has wonderful flying dreams, and her older brother Bor who has nightmares, and definitely needs Maartjes help...

Honorary Mention 2017

At the annual children's books award ceremony our book IK BEN BIJ DE DINOSAURUSSEN GEWEEST (I WAS WITH THE DINOSAURS) got an Honorary Mention for the text (in Dutch: Vlag en Wimpel). This is a very nice reward (thank you, jury!) for the effort that was put into this book. The book was written for illustrator Floor de Goede, who used to be a 'dinosaur-kid'. He outdid himself, and I'm glad the book will get some more attention now. The picture book, which was published by Querido, Amsterdam, was already chosen amongst the ten books for the picture book days. It describes how a young boy wants to emerge himself in the dinosaur's world, by reading about it in his favorite book. But then his parents call him... The book, with ample text, is an ode to the colourful imagination children spin (and to the dinosaurs of course!).

The book has also been published in Denmark, by Turbine Forlag, and rights for other languages can be discussed here.

Danish tigers

The second book that I got to make with the awesome Ingrid & Dieter Schubert was called WIJ ZIJN TIJGERS! (WE ARE TIGERS!). This picture book is now starting to travel: after a previous sale of rights to Germany (Fischer Sauerländer) recently also the Danes have bought it. It will be published at Turbine Forlag. The original book came out at Querido.

An earlier book that the Schuberts and I made together, OPVROLIJKVOGELTJE (CHEER UP BIRD) was sold to Germany, Italy, the United States and Turkey. That book came out at Lemniscaat.