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!

NINO in Argentina

THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE just came out in Argentina. This Spanish edition was translated by Micaela Van Muylem and published by Limonero. It was Anton van Hertbruggens debut, and an acclaimed one: he got awards in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United States!

The book was originally published in Belgium by De Eenhoorn and now has editions in German, French, English (USA), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Turkish, Danish, Korean and Simplified Chinese. Spanish is the 13th edition.

More about this book and the remaining rights & where to send your requests for grants/rights: here.

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...

NINO to TURKEY and MACEDONIA

Very agreable news: translation rights for THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD) were sold to Turkey. The book will be published by Final Kültür Sanat Yayınları. But at the same time rights were sold to Macedonia: to the publishing house of Ars Lamina. Fantastic!

Originally the book was published in Belgium, by De Eenhoorn. It won a number of awards: the Children's Literature Award in Germany, the Prix Sorcières in France, the Boekenpauw in belgium, the Gulden Palet in The Netherlands and a Silver Medal in the United States. And it was only Antons first children's book...

The book was also sold to China, Brazil, USA, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark and South-Korea.

NEW PICTURE BOOK WITH ALAIN VERSTER!

Alain Verster is the wonderful artist that I got to work with twice: in THE DOVE THAT COULDN'T DIVE and VASCO THE LITTLE SOCCER PIG. Books that traveled over the globe, with editions in Germany, Norway, Brazil, Denmark and China.

And now our third book is out! VASCO AND THE GREEN MONSTER was published by De Eenhoorn and tells the story of a sweet pig that is crazy about 'his' Matteo - the little boy at the farm. But then he hears Matteo is getting a new present, and the present is called John. Vasco's envy grows and grows: is this John a monster? A green monster?

Alain Verster and I are planning more books, but for now it's all about our colourful Vasco. Rights can be negeciated here, by the way.

New picture book announced

A new book about Vasco the Soccer Pig will find its way out into the world. In a few months this new picture book with the great and awesome Alain Verster will be published (by De Eenhoorn in Belgium). It's gonna be VASCO AND THE GREEN MONSTER and contains the story of how Vasco one day hoped to play soccer with his human mate Matteo (because they do so every day), but suddenly Matteo says he will be getting a new 'present' to play with - and this present is called John.
Vasco's head fills itself with jealousy and fear - will he be replaced by John, the Green Monster?

In 2011 Alain Verster debuted with my story THE DOVE THAT COULDN'T DIVE. The book was sold to six countries and received four awards. Our second collaboration was the 2013 VASCO THE LITTLE SOCCER PIG, which is also available in Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese and was nominated for the Boekenpauw, the highest Flemish illustration prize. VASCO AND THE GREEN MONSTER, which is to be read separately, is our third book together.

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.

GERMAN LITERATURE AWARD

It was an incredible afternoon, last Friday. The German Literature Awards were given out, and after having been already very, very happy with a nomination in the picture-book-category, we were absolutely thrilled to hear the titel of our book being announced as the winner.

'We' is the team behind DER HUND, DEN NINO NICHT HATTE, the German  translation of THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (HET HONDJE DAT NINO NIET HAD). Translater Rolf Erdorf, myself and mostly the illustrator: Anton Van Hertbruggen.
Previously he was rewarded with major prizes in Belgium, The Netherlands, France and the USA, all for this book.

The book is published in Germany by Bohem Press (Annabel Lammers and her team), and international rights were also sold to USA, Denmark, France, Brazil, China, Korea and Russia.
For the rights to other languagues, please contact the original publisher De Eenhoorn, at this page. Or write directly to sarah.claeys@eenhoorn.be.
The Flemish Literature Fund could help by providing a translation grant.   

NEW BOOK OUT!

There it is - the newest picture book that I got to write the text for. It's the stunning debut of Suzan T'Hooft: HET IS RAAK! which translates as BULLSEYE!
It's about those two shy bears - who are in love, but they don't dare to admit that. They have groups of friends around them that try to make them get closer to each other, but that plan doesn't turn out too good.
BULLSEYE! is a visually overwhelming picturebook, a true grand entrance in the children's books world by a very promising illustrator.
It was published by De Eenhoorn and rights can be seen here. 

THERE IT IS - A NEW BOOK WITH FLOOR DE GOEDE

I have enjoyed working with illustrator Floor de Goede already for many years. We made a series of comic poems together (and working on a third volume) and also a series of children's books about Sofie who is the biggest fan of penguins you could find.
But now a whole new book came out: IK BEN BIJ DE DINOSAURUSSEN GEWEEST (I was with the dinosaurs). It's a picture book about a boy that finds his favourite book: one about dinosaurs. But what happens when his family is a bit less interested?

The book came out at publishing house Querido, in Amsterdam, and the rights can be viewed here.
There are beautiful wide spreads full of dinosaurs - some examples go below (click to enlarge).

I am pretty proud of this new book by Floor.
Hopefully many kids (5 years old and up) will enjoy this colourful hommage to the world of imagination.

   

PICTUREBOOK TURNS INTO SHORT MOVIE

Some years ago I published a picture book, at publishing company De Eenhoorn, called VAN DE JONGEN DIE EEN EIKENHOUTEN STOELTJE AT - ABOUT THE BOY WHO ATE AN OAKWOOD CHAIR. The pictures were made by the well known, great artist Gerda Dendooven.

Actor Gauthier Castille gets wooden hands

Filmmaker Pieter Goethals has always been interested in turning this book into a short movie, and... now he does. Today, October 31st, 2015, the shooting of the movie began. Creative Genes is the producer and Pieter himself both wrote the script (which is based on the original story, but has a whole new twist) and will be directing. The movie is to be followed at their Facebookpage. It will probably be out in the first months of 2016.

For the translation rights to the picture book: check this page.

NEW BOOK OUT

For years I've been adoring the work of artist Marleen Felius. Her work - main topic: cows and cattle - is known and valued all over the world. Her 'Cattle breeds encyclopedia' (text and images by Marleen) is a magnificent work of art and knowledge.
Finally we found a chance and the time to work together.  The result of this is the sweet and lifelike LITTLE CALF, LITTLE FOAL. Which is out now!

This book has a very, very simple text, which talks about the first hours and days of a newborn calf and those of a newborn foal. The pictures show it all: the first drinking, the standing-up, the first time they see the meadow. It's almost non-fictional (because, when Marleen Felius is involved, you know that everything is true to life and no mistakes are made!), but still a small story.

Thanks to publishing house De Eenhoorn and designer Dries Desseyn. A proof translation in English is available, and this is the foreign rights page of De Eenhoorn.

CHEER-UP BIRD

My newest picture book, OPVROLIJKVOGELTJE, with the fantastic Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, was out a few weeks ago in the Netherlands and Belgium. In English this title translates to CHEER-UP-BIRD. Just now we heard that this book is already sold to two countries: to the United States (Lemniscaat USA) and to Italy (Il Castello). Really nice!

COMING UP: A NEW COLLABORATION

This is from their book MY HERO.

Since years I've loved their work: Ingrid and Dieter Schuberts picture books are witty, accessible, artful, classical (since 1980!), and yet always fresh and new. And now they agreed to work on a book by the three of us.

This new picture book, with my text and their pictures, will be published somewhere in 2015 - too early to tell much more, but let me announce just this: I'm extremely proud!

The book will be published by the publishing house of Lemniscaat.

DOEI! IS HERE

Marije Tolman (see her website) is one of Hollands leading illustrator. I am quite grateful that I got the chance to work with her for this book: DOEI! (SEE YA!). Out now!

It's a story about flying dreams, about happiness, and how to pass it on. The bookdesign is by Herman Houbrechts and Querido is the publisher.
Marije gave the simple story an impressive universe - colourful and cheerful, heartfelt and sweet. Hopefully this picture book will be the beginning of many more, and hopefully the book will be brought to other countries as well.

For those of you who are interested: a full English translation is available, as well as a pdf. Mail me at e.vendel@upcmail.nl.