Holland and Flanders being this year's honorary hosts at the 2016 Frankfurter Buchmesse, a wonderful book was published about Dutch and Flemish youth literature. The Book of Children's Books (original title Het boekenboek) was co-written by Mirjam Noorduijn and Veerle Vanden Bosch and translated into English by Laura Watkinson. Its fifty chapters deal with as many essential book titles and introduce twenty-five illustrators from the Low Countries. In addition there is a plethora of anecdotes, columns, reference lists and literary tidbits.

Among the fifty books selected for the canonical list is Against the Odds

From August 26 to September 5 I will attend the Café Amsterdã Festival in São Paulo en Rio de Janeiro. This event, organised by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and EYE Internationl, highlights Dutch books and movies. Besides readings and lectures by the authors there is a film programme (including a screening of Patatje Oorlog, based on my book Against the Odds) and an exhibition featuring the work of contemporary children's book illustrators.

Further information about the festival and the authors here.

Mein Opa und ich und ein Schwein namens Oma, the German translation of My grandad and me and a pig called Granny, has been shortlisted for the Swiss Prix Chronos 2015. It is among the five titles selected by the Schweizerische Institut für Kinder- und Jugendmedien (SIKJM) from which the reading pulic will choose a winner. The Prix Chronos is a prize awarded by Pro Senectute Schweiz in association with Pro Juventute. All competition entries feature relationships between old folks and young - senior citizens and under fifteens.
The prize winning ceremony is on 23 April.

At the beginning of October I will be in Reykjavik, where I have been invited to attend the Mýrin festval / Mooreland Children’s and Youth Literature Festival.
Subsequently I will travel to Siglufjörður, where I will be working on a  project I set up together with Lieke van Duin and the public library Hoogeveen. We matched an Icelandic school group (Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar) with a Dutch one (Het Palet Hoogeveen). The students get in touch through an non-public weblog and work on creative assignments pertaining to Iceland and the Netherlands. I am happy to act as a kind of go-between.