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.

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).

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.

Talking about poetry for children

This year (March 2017) the very first Versfest was organized in Berlin: a festival about poetry for children. I was so lucky to be asked as one of the poets. A part of the festival is the Voices-project: writers and poets talk about their profession. Below you can hear the answers I had to come up with, answers to some pretty difficult questions.
By the way: the book I'm referring to can be found here.

Even more poetry in the United States

And again some wonderful translation news. David Colmer is also working on the English translation of the poems from my volume I'M CHEERING FOR YOU - poems that are about animals and sports, written to the images made by Wolf Erlbruch.

The publishing house of Eerdmans, that also did THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (with Anton Van Hertbruggen) and the consecutive books about the dog Sam (with Philip Hopman), will now publish I'M CHEERING FOR YOU. That is marvelous news. So, a big thank you to Eerdmans, to rights manager Luciënne van der Leije (of the original publisher Querido), and to David Colmer!

I'M CHEERING FOR YOU was awarded with the bi-annual Golden Poetry Medal for children's poetry and received an Honorary Mention at the Dutch Children's Book Prizes.