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Where Is Kitty Cat?

More Marijke Klompmaker

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Children's books

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Marijke Klompmaker

With a beautifully bold and meandering style, Klompmaker uses pencil, brush and collage to build higgledy-piggledy themed houses with undulating walls. The protagonist, Nova, looks for Polle the cat in the homes of crooks and construction workers, inventors and astronauts, mythical creatures and fictional characters. Every packed picture has its own colour palette, so the cheerful chaos remains a united whole. For anyone who thinks they’ve seen it all, there are additional things to search for at the back of the book.30 pages 3+

Quote

Quotes

There are look-and-find books and there are special look-and-find books. This one falls into the second category

Lida Dijkstra

Djenné Fila

In his luxurious cell, he receives important guests who want to hear about his experiences. Even the prison director comes by for a visit and the maid Topina secretly eavesdrops from the corridor. When she discovers that a well-known writer is locked up on another floor, she steals the keys from the guard and brings the two men together, so that they can create a book. As a reward, she is allowed to listen in on their discussions. The stories are beautiful in themselves, but the conversations that the narrator and the writer have about them are even more interesting. Marco Polo doesn’t want a sensational tale, but a guide for merchants, who need to know about the quality and the prices of grass, grains and other goods from the East. Rustichello da Pisa, on the other hand, who has already written a successful novel, advises him to add gory and romantic details. When Marco Polo finally gives in, Rustichello notes with satisfaction: ‘We are creating a book that hordes of people will want to copy.’ As everyone knows, the book about Marco Polo’s travels was indeed published. To this day, scholars speculate about it: what is true and what is made up? With palpable pleasure, Dijkstra leaves that question open, adding her own stories into the mix. So, the reader experiences not only the colourful story of Marco Polo visiting Kublai Khan and the exciting experiences of the orphan girl Topina but also a discussion about fact and fiction, which is perfectly easy for curious young readers to follow and – whether true or not – is, above all, exciting and captivating. Age: 11+ <ul><li>The perfect combination of fact and fiction </li><li>History meets fantasy </li><li>Focus on a fascinating historical character </li><li>Packed with fun stories </li></ul>

History flows from Dijkstra’s pen.

Beautiful atmospheric illustrations by Djenné Fila.

A wonder of a book.

Book

An intriguing look at a historical  figure and the relationship  between fact and fiction, with  plenty of fun along the way

De wonderverteller

Marco Polo, famous even in his own lifetime, has returned home after years of travel and immediately finds himself in a tricky political situation. His hometown of Venice is at war with Genoa, and the adventurous merchant is imprisoned by the Genoese.

The Teller of Wonders

Jowi Schmitz

Romeo’s dad spends all day on the sofa, watching DVDs and coughing. He seems to have accepted his fate, but the same can’t be said for Romeo’s mum. She spends her time arguing with everyone and making disgusting vegetable concoctions for his dad, in the hope of making him better. Romeo feels alone until he finds a friend in the form of a chicken who lands on his balcony one night. He calls her Cluck, and he tells her everything that’s going on inside his head. Cluck belongs to the girl who’s just moved in next door. Tobi is Romeo’s complete opposite: she’s a chatterbox and a livewire. But she has a dead mum, too. In an urn. On her first day at Romeo’s school, Tobi talks about her mum’s death, even passing the urn containing her mum’s ashes around the class. Romeo realises that she understands what it’s like to have a dead parent, and they become friends. Romeo and his dad often watch a TV show about making terminally ill people’s last wishes come true. His dad doesn’t have any big wishes, but he does have fond memories of a long-ago trip to the Mojave Desert, where the vast space gave him a sense of freedom. Freedom, for him, is being able to ‘see a long way’. Romeo and Tobi decide to do whatever they can to give him that feeling one last time. Jowi Schmitz’s sentences and dialogues often have a deeper layer. With cinematic subtlety and also humour, she presents the inevitable course of events, as a hospital bed suddenly appears in the living room and the untouched glasses of water pile up by the bedside. She skilfully depicts the impact on Romeo, making it easy for the reader to identify with him and his emotions. Age: 10+ <ul><li>Sentences that you want to write down and keep </li><li>The humorous, down-to earth style ensures the theme doesn’t become too heavy</li></ul>

Not just an emotionally moving book about a parent’s death but above all a tribute to the ingenuity and determination of children, which remains intact even in the most difficult of times.

Jowi Schmitz has written a buoyant story about living and death that leaves you hopeful.

Kip op je kop

Two months ago, Romeo heard that the hospital was stopping his dad’s treatment because he’s going to die. ‘That kind of thing doesn’t happen to us’ is his initial reaction, so he doesn’t mention it to anyone. If it’s not going to happen, why talk about it? But now Romeo’s struggling to cope with the thought of losing his dad.

Chicken on Your Head

Yorick Goldewijk

The sloth’s story is the first short tale in this book about the very different creatures living in one and the same tree. There’s a caterpillar who refuses to grow up and become a moth. A swallow who’s lost something but doesn’t know what. Among the roots of the tree, a bear wakes up – and he’s not in the mood for spring. A grumpy woodlouse demands that there should be a story about him, too. The highlight is perhaps the cannibalistic aphid who eats her brothers and sisters in her sleep. Or was it just a dream? The poetic read-aloud stories have a friendly, humorous undertone and are subtly interconnected. The two pikes, for example, who are bothered by the sloth at night, haven’t spoken to each other in a long time. When you compare one pike’s story to the other’s, this turns out to be a tragic misunderstanding. Such connections and the double meanings in some of the stories make them perfectly suited for reading aloud and then talking about. The atmospheric illustrations by Jeska Verstegen, who puts her own subtle spin on the stories, also draw the reader in. This collection is a new and original contribution to the genre of the animal tale, so popular with children and with the people who read stories to them. Age: 6+ <ul><li>Original tales told with wit and imagination</li><li>Perfectly matched illustrations that are full of life</li></ul>

Another new step for Goldewijk.

A wonderful book that you should read at least twice

A collection of philosophical animal stories packed with humour and casual wisdom

De boom die een wereld was

Night is when the sloth likes to party. During the daytime, he hangs on his branch and acts like he’s doing nothing. But as soon as darkness falls, he starts doing somersaults and causing a commotion at the nearby lake, 
where the pikes are trying to sleep. The other inhabitants of the tree pretend they don’t know what’s going on. Meanwhile, they’re all getting on with their own lives and their own little dramas.

The Tree That Was a World

Tamara Bos

Nothing helps. The tears keep on coming. Tamara Bos and Barbara de Wolf cinematically build up the tension and despair as Little Dog frantically searches for a solution. But it’s no good. In the lively illustrations, you see the tears rising higher and higher, until it looks like they’re about to wash the dogs away in an enormous wave. Little Dog doesn’t know what to do – except for join in with the crying. Then Big Dog tells Little Dog that she’s sad. And that crying isn’t a bad thing and it’s sometimes necessary. It’s a thought that’s both funny and touching, and it even makes Big Dog smile. Even when she’s full of tears, she’s still Big Dog. And that’s the beautiful conclusion of this comforting picture book. It shows that sadness is a part of life – even for grown-ups.

Als grote hond huilt

Big Dog is crying. And Little Dog doesn’t like that at all. The endearing Little Dog enters the page with a bunch of flowers, jumps on a trampoline to stick plasters on Big Dog’s fur, digs up bones and takes Big Dog to a field of pooing and peeing dogs in case she needs to go, too.

When Big Dog Cries

More Children's Books

Waar is Polle Poes?

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.

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