The idea behind Marijke Klompmaker’s first solo picture book is a simple one: the cat has gone missing – and the reader is invited to help search various houses in the neighbourhood. But the way the idea is developed is surprising and original.
With a beautifully bold and meandering style, Klompmaker uses pencil, brush and collage to build higgledy-piggledy themed houses with undulating walls. The protagonist, Nova, looks for Polle the cat in the homes of crooks and construction workers, inventors and astronauts, mythical creatures and fictional characters. Every packed picture has its own colour palette, so the cheerful chaos remains a united whole. For anyone who thinks they’ve seen it all, there are additional things to search for at the back of the book.
30 pages
3+
Jip has to make a self-portrait for school. But even though the teenager has a talent for drawing and ‘a head that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside’, every attempt fails. ‘The problem isn’t with the letters in the assignment,’ Jip realises. The ‘portrait’ part is fine. No, it’s the word ‘self’ – what is Jip supposed to do with that?
Fourteen-year-old Moos wakes up to find Leon, his foster grandfather, sailing into his room, complete with his bed. The world has been engulfed by a devastating flood. Fortunately, Moos is prepared: a raft carrying his grandpa’s old Buick and sufficient food and tobacco for Grandpa proves to be a lifesaver, and a frantic adventure ensues, full of social criticism.
An intriguing look at a historical figure and the relationship between fact and fiction, with plenty of fun along the way
Night is when the sloth likes to party. During the daytime, he hangs on his branch and acts like he’s doing nothing. But as soon as darkness falls, he starts doing somersaults and causing a commotion at the nearby lake, where the pikes are trying to sleep. The other inhabitants of the tree pretend they don’t know what’s going on. Meanwhile, they’re all getting on with their own lives and their own little dramas.