Hans Hagen

Hans Hagen (b. 1955) likes to travel, as is evident from the subject matter of the stories that he chooses for his books. A number of these books were inspired by a visit to the Middle East. Following his adaptation of the Gilgamesh epic, he wrote about this ancient culture in among others, Het gouden oog (The Golden Eye, 1991) and De weg van de wind (The Way of The Wind, 1992). But his stories for younger children are also set in other cultures, for example De kat en de adelaar (The Cat and The Eagle, 1997). The idea for The Dance of the Drummers was formed during a trip to Ghana. Hagen’s work has regularly been awarded prizes since 1992, most recently the Golden Slate Pencil for The Dance of the Drummers and a Silver Slate Pencil in 2004 for Zwaantje en Lolly Londen.

Maliff and the Wolf

(Van Goor, 1994, 63 pages)

Maliff en de wolf arose out of the journey which Hans Hagen made with his wife and daughter through Syria. The story, about shepherds with flocks, wolves, thirst and desert sands, evokes the atmosphere of his previous books Het gouden oog and De weg van de wind. In fact, dream and myth overlap in vivid, imaginative language, but time and place are undefined, and the story is written for younger children. The short sentences, which always begin on a new line, make it suitable for learner-readers.

Rec.play

(Van Goor, 1999, 112 pages)

Rec.play consists of 33 short, powerful chapters edited together one after the other as apparently separate scenes. At the end of the film, those pieces all turn out to be part of a closely structured scenario filmed at different points in time and from varying angles. Here from the point of view of fourteen-year old Emma, there from the views of her classmate, Teye.

The Dance of the Drummers

(Van Goor, 2003, 109 pages)

Choices, life is full of them. Even children, no matter how young and where they live, have to make choices. In this book Hans Hagen shows what choices there are for children in Ghana. He reveals beautifully how important oral tradition is to this society. Six children are given the opportunity to become apprenticed to master drummer Dudu Addi. On the basis of their own story each has to choose a colour and a drum that fits him or her. In this way they are initiated into their own culture and become full-fledged members of that culture. This makes the story resemble an initiation rite.

Sold

(Querido Kind, 2007, 171 pages)

Verkocht is an evocative story that can be read in two ways: as an exciting adventure set in the rugged desert of Dubai, but also as an unequivocal indictment of child slavery in the Middle East. Hans Hagen tells the tale of the four-year-old Pakistani boy Yaqub, whose parents are forced to sell him to a people smuggler.

The Cockfight

(Querido Kind, 2012, 106 pages)

Stories about people in impoverished circumstances are often very gripping. When life is hard, the decisions you make can really matter. If you have no money and something goes wrong, your situation can quickly go from bad to worse. Hans Hagen’s The Cockfight is all about living in poverty and making the right decisions.

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