Abel and Olle
A heartwarming yet hard-hitting topical story
Abel is a lorry driver. For years and years, he’s been transporting the same cargo: 100 piglets, driving them from farm to slaughterhouse. One day, as he takes a short break, a young piglet manages to escape. Abel catches the animal and pops it onto an orange tea towel on the passenger seat of his lorry. ‘How much further till we get there?’, asks the piglet, startling Abel.
The piglet is called Olle (short for Ollekebolleke the Dutch version of higgledy-piggledy), and if that weren’t amazing enough, he also has a thousand stories to tell. Like the one about Pigcasso, the pig who became a world-famous painter. And about the chef who almost ate his own cat. And about the residents of a small town who must go through life with curly tails after a mix-up with the tooth fairy. Abel is so distracted that he misses the exit to his destination. As Olle tells yet another story, Abel takes one detour after another, delaying their arrival at the slaughterhouse. How can he continue delivering his cargo now that he’s met Olle?
Janneke Schotveld writes openly about the horrors of factory farming yet never preaches to her readers. Martijn van der Linden’s colour illustrations enrich the narrative, giving a greater depth to Olle’s stories.
An entertaining and deeply moving story about a serious topic
An accessible read
With beautiful colour illustrations by Martijn van der Linden
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' (Sister), about a girl from a deeply religious family, was published in the Slash series (Querido) based on true stories about remarkable young people.