(Leopold, 1995, 39 pages)

Janna’s mother is in hospital. Daddy goes to visit her twice daily but Janna isn’t allowed to go with him. Mummy looks very sick and sometimes she can’t stop crying and she doesn’t want to confront her little girl with these things. Janna feels shut out and decides to change the situation herself. She strings together a colourful bead necklace that will make her mummy beautiful and happy and then sets out for the hospital. But before she can find her mother’s room the necklace breaks and most of the beads roll away and are lost.

(Leopold, 2002, 89 pages)

May I Borrow Your Ghost? is the third book about the brothers Sil (10) and Geerten (9) and their little sister Mare (5), children who are as often naughty, rude and jealous as well as withdrawn, brave and immensely loyal. Selma Noort wrote the books because she saw a need for a children’s book about three children from a single family. Not only are the stories ‘a slice of (family) life,’ but they’re also so lively and fast-paced that from the very first page events seem to unfold as in a film.

(Leopold, 2020, 264 pages)

For King Solomon’s Daughter, Selma Noort has revisited the Old Testament story about the wise King Solomon, who was asked to make a judgement in a case of two women who both claimed to be the mother of the same baby – whereupon Solomon ordered that the child should be cut in two.

(Leopold, 2021, 208 pages)

Yussuf’s family live next door to one another in a number of houses by the river. His tough grandma is the centre of the family, along with her brother, who is mainly interested in his pigeons, and her son and daughter, each with a partner and child. They all get along well, and life is calm and peaceful in the shade of a pear tree.