THERE WAS A TINCAN IN THE GRASS

ER LAG EEN TROMMELTJE IN HET GRAS (THERE WAS A TINCAN IN THE GRASS)

year:

2020

genre:

picture book, 32 p.

publisher:

Querido
illustrator:
Sanne te Loo

age:

5+

awards:

Silver Slate 2021

 

This story is about time. A young boy finds a tincan at a flee market, loses it in his way home, and then we go back in time... To see that the tincan once belonged to Lina, who used it to store a personal treasure when she was small. But then she forgot about it and years later, after her death, her daughters selll the tincan... to the young boy. From that point in the story we go forward: what happens when it's the boy's turn to grow old? Sanne te Loo beautifully illustrated this journey through the decades, and she reveils to the viewer what Lina's treasure was... The book ends with a treasure map that leads the children once again through the years and provides them with the last missing links...

GLOW

GLOEI (GLOW)

year:

2020

genre:

non-fiction, poetry, 480 p.

publisher:

Querido
illustrator:
Floor de Goede 

age:

14+ and adults

awards:

Rainbowbook of the year 2021

Nomination for the Çavaria Media Award 2020

Honour List IBBY 2022

Silver Slate 2021

Silver Pencil 2021 (for the illustrations)

 

For this big book I interviewed twenty one young people (between 15 and 23 years old). They talked frankly about all the things that glow in their lives: love, anger ambition. Being extremely diverse, they all have one thing in common: their sexuality or their gender differs from the majority. To every interview I wrote a poem, and Floor de Goede drew a portrait of each interviewee. At the end of the book there's a chapter that reveils what happened after the interviews. The beautiful book design is by Roald Triebels.

This book also marks the start of a whole new series with novels with queer main characters: Querido's imprint Querido Glow.

THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST (with Jelmer Soes and Dave Boomkens)

HET EUROVISIE SONGFESTIVAL (THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, together with Jelmer Soes and Dave Boomkens)
year:
2020 
genre:

non-fiction, 240 p.

publisher:

Querido
illustrator:
several (photographs)

age:

9+ and adults

2020 marks the year that I got to be one of the founders of  www.eurostory.nl, an online magazine that combines literature, stories and the Eurovision Song Contest. Apart from that, the Netherlands won the contest in 2019, with Duncan Laurence, which means the festival will be held in Rotterdam - my home town (although now the festival got postponed by a year because of covid-19).

From these facts a question rose: to write an encyclopedia-like book about the Eurovision Song Contest. I wrote this together with my Eurostory-colleagues Jelmer Soes and Dave Boomkens: a quite voluminous book in which all years, all songs and all stories found their place.
For every edition (the festival celebrates 65 years!) there's a piece about the winner, about the Dutch contestant, about the 'funniest lyrical line' that was sung that year, there's a list with all names and points, and there are extra stories that were worth being told. Besides that there are many beautiful pictures, some of them were never printed before. And there's a preface by our Eurovision commentator Cornald Maas!

The book is suited for both adults and children, and was beautifully designed by Roald Triebels.