Janneke Schotveld
Janneke Schotveld (1974) has been a children’s writer since 2007, making her breakthrough with the series Superjuffie. Her modern fairy tales De kikkerbilletjes van de koning, Het kattenmannetje and Avonturen van de dappere ridster have won over many young hearts. For young readers, she wrote Rotkat, Hanna en Hamza and Zepie. Her first book aimed at teenagers, Zusje, about a girl from a deeply religious family, was published in the Slash series (Querido) based on true stories about remarkable young people.
Futhermore, she’s written three collections of contemporary fairy tales in quick succession. Schotveld won the Hotze de Roos Prize for her debut, Villa Fien, has been selected by the Children’s Jury twice and received a commendation from the Griffel Jury.
More Janneke Schotveld
The Adventures of the Brave Ms Knight
What has gone wrong since the Brothers Grimm recorded all those funny and violent orally transmitted folk stories? Who exactly decided that you have to be a ‘proper’ writer in order to write such stories? The best tales come about naturally at the bedside and are passed on by mums and dads and grandmas and grandpas, weaving together events of the day and things they’ve heard elsewhere to create nonsense stories that aren’t really nonsensical at all.
The King’s Frog Legs and Other Fairy Tales
‘Normal, normal – what is normal?’ replies the fairy when the king asks if he’s going to have a normal child. This is perhaps the key sentence of this sparkling book of fairy tales. Because there’s room for everyone in Janneke Schotveld’s fifteen long stories. Roles are reversed, and there’s no lack of diversity in the words or the pictures: from a lesbian princess to an enchanted headscarf and a black prince who is rescued from his tower by a brave lady knight.
Little Sister
Touching portrait of a young woman whose desire to spread her wings reveals more of an urge to escape.