Bette Westera

Bette Westera (b. 1958) is a versatile writer who creates modern fairytales, poems, picture books and realistic stories for children up to the age of around ten. After a short period as a primary-school teacher, she studied psychology. Bette now teaches people how to write stories for picture books. Her other great passion is music. She sings and writes lyrics for the music that her partner composes. Westera is one of the Netherlands’ top poets for children. Together with illustrator Sylvia Weve, she created the poetry collections Doodgewoon (2014) and Uit elkaar (2019), which were showered with prizes.

Grandma’s Junk Room

(De Fontein, 2005, 128 pages)

Oma’s rommelkamer (Grandma’s Junk Room) by Bette Westera is an intimate book about the strong bond between a grandmother and her granddaughter. Sofia and Grandma are the best of friends and they both have a great time on the regular occasions when Sofia comes to stay for the night.

Scram! I’m Not Your Gran!

(Gottmer, 2012, 60 pages)

Children’s author Bette Westera and illustrator Sylvia Weve have taken a unique and gently anarchic approach in these vibrant and powerful portraits of twelve old people, with their snappy rhymes and eloquent images. Scram! I’m Not Your Gran! demonstrates how craftsmanship and artistry can come together to produce an imaginative children’s book that playfully combines ethics and aesthetics, emotion and humour.

Never Tickle a Crocodile

(Gottmer, 2014, 32 pages)

Robber Chief Wrinklebeard has two cheeky sons and a very obedient daughter. On his deathbed he gives his children the following advice: do what you want, steal anything from anyone, but never tickle a crocodile. Only his obedient daughter does as she’s told.

Dead Simple

(Gottmer, 2014, 112 pages)

Unique, unorthodox and unflinching: this describes children’s writer Bette Westera and illustrator Sylvia Weve’s approach to death in all its aspects. These poems, rhymes and songs range from poignant to light-hearted in tone and invite the reader to recite them out loud. Weve’s outstanding, evocative illustrations are marked by their diversity of style, composition and atmosphere, beautifully complementing the poems and completing the collection.

Breaking Up

(Gottmer, 2019, 136 pages)

A boy who sees his dad kissing his teacher. A girl who finally gets the big (half-)brother she’s wanted for so long. Stepmothers who actually turn out to be okay. This poetry collection by Bette Westera and Sylvia Weve is about love, but about love that has failed, run aground or ended in separation. In these rhythmic verses, no subject remains undiscussed.

The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson

(Gottmer, 2020, 368 pages)

Nils Holgersson is part of a series of legendary characters that many people know and love. The red-capped elf who crosses Sweden on the back is an icon. He owes his immortality to the sense of adventure and the imaginative language of Selma Lagerlöf, as seen once again in these beautiful new adaptation of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson (1906).

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