Ted van Lieshout and Philip Hopman
10 years of Farmer Boris
A bestselling picture-book series about one of the best-loved characters in Dutch children’s books
What began ten years ago with a simple counting book has grown to become an iconic picture-book series in the Netherlands, featuring playful stories of a consistently high quality. These stories are about Farmer Boris, a pre-schooler who has adventures with his brother and sister on and around his farm.
Life on the farm already appeals to young readers’ imaginations, and Boris also gets to have lots and lots of fun – as his parents are nowhere to be seen. Boris looks after the animals and the land all by himself, cooks soup, bakes bread, and cruises around on a tractor. How cool is that? The smoothly rhyming texts – accessible, yet with rich vocabulary – and the fabulous pastel illustrations in Hopman’s elastic style make this an irresistible series for reading aloud. There are now fifteen books in the series, including themed books for Christmas, Easter, winter, summer and birthdays. There has also been a bath book, a memory game, a find-the-difference board book and a friendship book.
In 2022, a Farmer Boris exhibition and a play can be seen in the Netherlands.
