Elephants are not generally considered to be seafaring animals although they do come with built-in snorkels. When Arnold the elephant’s boat sinks, his snorkel proves very useful. He ends up on a tiny island, which, hilariously, is no larger than one of his legs. Some might despair at this situation; not so Arnold! His snorkel … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Elephant Island
It is one of those questions that you often get as a child: do you already know what you want to be when you grow up? Fortunately, you don't have to choose a study or profession until the end of secondary school. Until then, you can fantasize about many professions, for example by reading books about them.-- … Continue reading #WorldKidLitMonth & #DutchKidLit Wrap-Up – Children’s Book Week 2021 “Be what you want to be!”
Like all good fairytales, Lampie and the Children of the Sea starts with things going horribly wrong for a young, vulnerable heroine. Lampie's name is a nickname that reflects her purpose, as she is in charge of lighting the lamp every night at the lighthouse where she lives with her drunken, lame father. She is … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – The Female Gothic and Lampie and the Children of the Sea by Annet Schaap
"De brief voor de Koning" image via Trouw Post by guest author Aaron Tyo-Dickerson from the International School of The Hague.Dutch author Tonke Dragt was born in 1930 in the city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia today). Only a year younger than Anne Frank, Dragt’s adolescence was also interrupted dramatically by … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
Today's post is a virtual field trip to the Children's Book Museum in The Hague, just a short bicycle ride from my house. This is my second trip to the museum to research #DutchKidLit for this month of posts, with the goal of learning more about the connections between early childhood Dutch books and the … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Virtual Field Trip to the “I Am Frog” and “ABC with the Animals and Me” Exhibits at the Children’s Book Museum
"The Batchelder Award is awarded to a United States publisher for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originating in a country other than the United States and in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States during the preceding year."-- Association … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Historical Fiction and the 2014, 2015 Batchelder Awards
Mylo Freeman’s 2021 picture book adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay We Should All Be Feminists is currently only available in its Dutch edition in translation by Hi-en Montijn, We Moeten Allemaal Feminist Zijn. This is a picture book introduction to feminism for children ages 8 and up, and full of Freeman’s characteristically bright, bold figures … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Translate This! We Moeten Allemaal Feminist Zijn by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, adapted and illustrated by Mylo Freeman
When speaking to international school librarians at the ECIS Libraries Week in 2021, author-illustrator Mylo Freeman shared the story that inspired her first Princess Arabella book. Freeman had heard from a friend who worked with a children’s theater group about a little girl who was offered the role of a princess and turned it down. … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Princess Arabella Series by Mylo Freeman
Post by guest author Nathalie Morrissey from the International School of Amsterdam.When Mylo Freeman’s father was an 8-year-old boy living in America, his school held a drawing competition sponsored by Disney. Although his drawing was selected as the winning piece, as soon as the Disney representative came to the school and discovered the favored artist … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Zaza Series by Mylo Freeman
Sam and Julia are two little grey mice who are best friends, much like Jip and Janneke of the famous Annie M.G. Schmidt stories, and they live in separate apartments in a glorious jumble of floors and rooms in a mouse mansion community with stairs running up and down, and chambers full of intricate, hand-made … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – The Mouse Mansion – Sam and Julia by Karina Schaapman
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 