The Cyclops
Multiple Gouden Griffel winner Daan Remmerts de Vries has written a humorous story about a monster who doesn’t seem too bad at first, but turns out to be just a mean old cyclops in the end. He rewards the helpful locals who give him an eyeglass for his short-sighted eye by flattening their village.
To reflect this refreshing idea — some monsters will always remain monsters — Gouden Penseel winner Floor Rieder has provided linocut illustrations in secondary colours and robust lines. The comic-strip layout of some of the pages introduces exciting variety to the images: by zooming in and out, Rieder shifts her focus between the industrious but rather dopey villagers — who are various kinds of creepy-crawlies — and the self-obsessed cyclops. A subversive picture book with lots of laughs, by two unique talents.
In his books Daan Remmerts de Vries (b. 1962) humorously holds up a mirror to parents and educators, but also to the children themselves.