Mohana van den Kroonenberg (b. 1967) is a sculptor and has previously written a collection of stories for adults. As a child, she stuttered, and she stopped talking for a while. She has used this experience in Dodo, her debut for young readers, with which she raced into the world of children’s books at full speed. The book has been showered with praise by both readers and reviewers.
(De Vier Windstreken, 2022, 180 pages)
After a failed round of introductions at school, when Dorian can’t say anything more than a faltering ‘Do-do’, he decides to keep quiet. Not long after that, he sees a stuffed dodo in a museum, and it triggers something inside him. Dorian steals a rare dodo’s egg, incubates it and develops a close bond with the chick. At least, that’s how he describes it in the notebook that he starts writing in after that disastrous first day at school. It’s up to the reader, who’s locked up inside Dorian’s head – an insecure, fiery boy’s mind – to decide where reality stops and imagination begins. Dorian thinks back to the summer with his best friend, Ramses, and the two girls in the…
