‘Seeing him was always a surprise, because he was so beautiful and white, and a little bit mysterious.’ Nine-year-old Kix and his younger sister Emilia fall in love with a big Pyrenean mountain dog the instant he walks into their lives. The dog is nervous and thin, with sad eyes and tangles in his ‘warm snowy fur’. Slowly the children gain his trust. But where did he come from?

This heart-warming story is one of Edward van de Vendel’s best books so far, mainly because of its tone. Based on a true story, it flows as if telling itself. Kix’s voice and experiences strike the reader as utterly authentic.

In their Farmer Boris picture books, Philip Hopman’s masterful illustrations perfectly underline the humour of Ted van Lieshout’s rhyming stories.

‘Ah, go and ride your bike!’ shouts Willem the dog in an argument with his husband, Boese the panda. In Dutch, that means something along the lines of ‘Just go away! Figure it out for yourself!’

Before Philip Hopman (b. 1961) became an illustrator, he briefly studied fashion. Hubert de Givenchy – voor Audrey met liefs (Hubert de Givenchy – for Audrey with Love) combines both of these passions.

‘Something happened today in gym class.’ A little boy is bursting to tell the big news that’s bubbling away inside him, but no one has time to listen to him.

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.