Dutch Children's Books
This page of Dutch Children's Books presents a selection of children's books recently published in the Netherlands, books that have been included for their artistic and commercial success.
We highly recommend the titles on this page, and would be happy to give further advice on noteworthy and interesting books for your publishing list. For more information please contact our Children's Books specialist.
Latest Children's Books
Where Is Kitty Cat?
The idea behind Marijke Klompmaker’s first solo picture book is a simple one: the cat has gone missing – and the reader is invited to help search various houses in the neighbourhood. But the way the idea is developed is surprising and original.
The Great Beetletown Cooking Contest
It’s time for Beetletown’s annual cooking competition. All the bees, butterflies, beetles and bugs are excitedly preparing to impress the jury with their best recipes. All except for the dung beetles. Because they never win anyway. The jury won’t even taste the dung beetles’ entry. But the oldest and wisest dung beetle refuses to give in.
Nadia's Night
This is the first collection of stories about a child with two dads published in the Netherlands. As far as the five-year-old protagonist Nadia is concerned, her family situation is perfectly ordinary: ‘My mummy lives somewhere else. She’s my tummy mummy, and her name is Lin.’
Maxi
Alarm!/ Alarm!/ Maxi’s little ears stand up in fright./ It’s that time again! Through the window, he sees someone coming down the street. A little old lady./ That’s not good./ A little old lady with a bag./ That’s not good at all. / A little old lady with a bag/ who’s heading STRAIGHT for the pet shop…/ That is seriously super-mega-giga BAD.
Once Upon a Time...
There are entire parts of the world where no one has ever heard of Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty or Hansel and Gretel – and people tell different stories entirely. About the rainbow snake, for instance, or water spirits and primal mothers.
How I Hid My Sister and Lost Her
‘I’m Kos and I’ve lost my baby sister. I really will explain what that’s all about soon, but first I’m going to tell you how much fun it was to start with.’ Yes, these opening sentences from Mohana van den Kroonenberg’s second children’s book, about a day in the life of a child who goes out on his own, pack quite a punch. Building up so much tension in so few words is no easy feat.
The Journey of Manie Shaved Ice
This book, richly illustrated in tropical colours, tells the fascinating story of the illustrator Hedy Tjin’s great-grandfather, the man who introduced shaved ice to the South American country of Suriname. This treat consists of fine shavings of ice with sweet syrup poured over it, and it’s known by different names all over the world.
Mushroom & Co
‘You owe the fact that you’re reading this book to fungi. Not because this book wouldn’t be about anything otherwise, but because human beings would never have existed.’ Right from the very first chapter, the biologist Geert-Jan Roebers makes it clear that toadstools and mushrooms aren’t just any old subject. This largely unseen fungal kingdom plays a crucial role in our existence.
The Boy Who Loved the World
It sounds like the most impossible mission ever: Breath, a spirit who resembles an eleven or twelve-year-old boy, has to ensure that his future mother and father fall in love. Otherwise he will never exist for real.
Upstream
Noor’s mum and dad are fanatical about the environment. That means: no planes, eating vegetarian food, staging playful protest activities and having planning meetings in the living room. This way of life has always been completely natural to Noor. But now that she’s expected to make a fool of herself by dressing up in a homemade polar-bear costume at the next demonstration and no one has even asked her if she actually wants to do it, she decides that enough is enough.
Jona
Sixteen-year-old Jona’s grandmother has dementia and talks increasingly often about her old love, Simon. But that wasn’t Grandpa’s name, and no one has ever heard of Simon. Who is she talking about? For a project at school, Jona decides to make a film about the subject. He has help from two classmates: the bossy blabbermouth Elin and the calm Lucas.
Thousand and I
You could call the world in this book a future dystopia, but strictly speaking the label falls short. Because is Yorick Goldewijk’s thrilling and ingenious novel actually about the future? Or is Goldewijk opening an unexpected window onto our own time, in which the digital and real worlds are becoming increasingly intertwined?
