Imme Dros
It’s Almost my Birthday
Plucky pre-schooler Ella can’t wait for her birthday and is terribly curious about the mysterious present up in the attic. When she finds a ladder leaning against the side of the house, Ella climbs up on to the roof with her friend Lucy and looks through the attic window. And then she sees her secret present, which hasn’t been wrapped yet…
Imme Dros convincingly captures the birthday excitement and anticipation, followed shortly afterwards by the pangs of Ella’s guilty conscience. The illustrations by Harrie Geelen (Imme Dros’s husband) make this book really appealing as a picture book. Geelen depicts Ella both touchingly and believably in an attractive, nostalgic children’s world full of sunshine. And he really went to town when he painted Ella’s doll’s house.
Truusje Vrooland-Löb
