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.

White Raven for Prince Hayo

Every year, the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany selects 200 exceptional books from all over the world, which are then introduced with short annotations in an English-language catalogue. Books are chosen based on their potential interest for an international audience, whether due to their innovative literary or illustrative quality, or due to their consideration of universally relevant topics. These books are awarded with a White Raven.

I'm very happy to have read that this year my latest book with the wonderful Mattias De Leeuw, HET TELBOEK VAN PRINS HAJO DE GELUKKIGE (THE COUNTING BOOK OF PRINCE HAYO THE HAPPY) was chosen as one of 2017s White Ravens. The book was originally published by De Eenhoorn in Belgium, but is, so far, also translated into German and Korean.