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Age 13+

trans­lated into
  • Cover 'The Book of Space Travel'
    Cover 'The Book of Space Travel'
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    The Book of Space Travel
    Van Der Veken’s line is so sharp that his world is beautifully streamlined.
    THE NEW YORKER ON ‘FABRICA GRAFICA’

    Jan Van Der Veken plunges with panache into the history and technological developments of space flight. With his fantastic retro-futurist drawings he proves himself an extraordinary illustrator with a style all his own. This nonfiction title for astronauts-to-be is once again an impressive achievement of graphic design.

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  • Cover 'Morris'
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    Morris
    A literary masterpiece. ‘Morris’ is Moeyaert at his best.
    De Standaard

    Morris climbs a mountain to fetch his grandmother's dog safely home for the hundredth time when a snowstorm catches them by surprise. Moeyaert depicts Morris, with masterly precision, as a loner who carries sadness within him and at the same time – almost to his own surprise – doesn’t let anyone mess him about. Sebastiaan Van Doninck's illustrations bring warmth and colour into the snow-white cold of the story.

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  • Cover of Nothing
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    Nothing
    Playful as well as provocative and profound
    De Morgen

    A dog asks a cat to tell it something, anything at all. But the cat can’t think of a single thing. Then the dog flips things around and challenges the cat to think of nothing. It blows a fuse in the cat’s head: there’s always something. Something or nothing, that’s the question in this fun and philosophical picture book.

     

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  • Cover of 'The Girl's Heart'
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    The Girl's Heart
    You really do want to keep on looking at his illustrations
    MappaLibri

    A girl searches in vain for her father. When she spots him in the distance and walks over to him, he disappears, and then appears to be waiting for her again. But as soon as she gets closer: nothing, nobody. This mysterious book with powerful monotypes addresses a topical issue: children in search of their roots and family bonds. 

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  • Cover - Boats
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    Boats
    Van Der Veken's line is so sharp that his world is beautifully streamlined.
    THE NEW YORKER ON ‘FABRICA GRAFICA’

    In ‘Boats’ we dive into the wonderful world of ships and shipping. The book includes a quirky selection from the technical aspects of ships, and is peppered with extraordinary facts and anecdotes. The playful illustrations in 'ligne claire' style and the extensive technical drawings make this book a graphic masterpiece for every captain in the making.

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  • Cover - Espionage
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    Espionage
    A masterful first book ****
    Cutting Edge about 'Aldo' by Yannick Pelegrin

    This nonfiction book plunges us into the intriguing world of secret agents around the globe. From an overview of famous spies and fancy gadgets to tips to kickstart your own career as a spy. The imaginative and atmospheric illustrations complement the text and make 'Espionage' a gorgeous book for readers of all ages.

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  • Cover Planes
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    Planes
    The illustrations, with a retro-futuristic streak, give the book a stylish aura.
    Pluizer

    'Planes’ is a remarkable reference work for pilots-to-be. It answers all kinds of questions about flying, the components of a plane, the influence of the weather and the atmosphere and about communication in an ever more crowded airspace. The unique illustrations in the so-called atomic style contribute to the book’s industrial look. Van Der Veken produces clever, highly stylised illustrations that are not only technically correct but also atmospheric and poetic.

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  • Cover 'Everyone's Sorry Nowadays'
    ALMA winner!
    Cover 'Everyone's Sorry Nowadays'
    ALMA winner!
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    Everyone's Sorry Nowadays
    A master of suspense and of the subtle untangling of painful situations *****
    De Standaard

    Her mother thinks Bianca is a girl that requires special treatment. Her father thinks she is unmanageable. And Bianca herself? She doesn’t say a word. Until one hot afternoon in August, Billie King, her favourite actress, is sitting in the living room, sipping a cup of tea. With Billie King around, Bianca is brave enough to take a decision. Moeyaert creates an oppressive atmosphere, in which smouldering tensions can erupt any moment.

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  • Cover 'Everything Will Be Fine, Forever'
    Woutertje Pieterse Prize
    Cover 'Everything Will Be Fine, Forever'
    Woutertje Pieterse Prize
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    Everything Will Be Fine, Forever
    Vereecken captures the harsh reality in poetic sentences. An extraordinarily strong novel ****
    Cutting Edge

    Summer 1914. Through the eyes of eleven-year-old Alice we see the increasing alarm among the grownups: war is said to be imminent. Alice’s naivety makes way for a brutal confrontation with reality, but ‘Everything Will Be Fine, Forever’ is first and foremost a celebration of life and hope.

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  • Cover 'How It Happened'
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    How It Happened
    An unusually atmospheric and touching book about jealousy, friendship and betrayal
    Trouw

    Eleven-year old Bent wants to break things and punch the new boy in the face. But behind all his anger lies fear and sadness. Jumping back and forth in time Herman van de Wijdeven peels away layer upon layer of the story, until we know what happened exactly on that fateful afternoon two days ago. Van de Wijdeven sketches a beautiful portrait of a friendship between boys that is being pushed off course.

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  • Cover 321 Super-smart Things You Have To Know Before You Turn 13
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    321 Seriously Smart Things You Need To Know
    A fantastically-designed book with surprising, funny facts and wonderful illustrations
    Kinderboekwinkel Kakelbont

    Did you know that a giraffe can lick the inside of its ears? That we have been brushing our teeth for thousands of years? That you can weigh your head by putting it in a bucket of water? Or that astronauts pee into a vacuum cleaner?

    ‘321 Super-smart Things You Have To Know’ is a fine pillow book for younger and older Einsteins.

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  • Cover Het wonderlijke insectenboek
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    The Amazing Book of Insects
    Playful and accessible
    Eindhovens Dagblad

    Discover why the glow-worm glows, how the bombardier beetle got its name and in what way a caterpillar can disguise itself. An exceptional ode to the ultimate boss on earth, who will mesmerize young and old.

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  • Cover - I must
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    I Must
    In all respects a rarity. A gem
    NBD Biblion

    ‘I Must’ is a collection of powerful portraits and philosophical texts full of compassion, vulnerable and confrontational at the same time. It exposes a merciless and terrible human tangle of obligations and expectations. Godon and Tellegen inspire thoughts, give a name to feeling and trigger involvement.

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  • Cover Babel
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    Babel
    An ambitious young adult novel about the things that divide us: money and religion
    Trouw

    Babel is an exciting, profound novel, in which Jan De Leeuw again shows that his great strength lies in creating complex, thoroughly credible characters. In this flawlessly constructed story the puzzle is slowly laid out and no one turns out to be what they seem. Apparently effortlessly De Leeuw embeds the human struggle of his characters in a web of religion and superstition, Biblical and jihadi themes.

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  • Cover Crossing the Line
    White Raven 2017
    Cover Crossing the Line
    White Raven 2017
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    Crossing the Line
    Aline Sax shows how the damage inflicted by the wall carries on beyond its physical destruction.
    MappaLibri

    Three generations of Berliners, one wall. In ‘Crossing the Line’, Aline Sax has written an epic tale of life with the Berlin Wall. This tense sketch of a family’s struggle for survival presents daily life in Berlin in a fascinating and convincing light. The threat of the Stasi gradually permeates, and the feeling that no one can be trusted continues to reverberate throughout.

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  • Cover I think
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    I Think
    A gem to treasure
    Boekenpauw jury

    ‘I Think’ takes a close look at thinking from different perspectives. Ingrid Godon does this through a mixture of sketches and stylised, timeless portraits of young and old people, using a soft red to highlight details, while author Toon Tellegen works with gently philosophical reflections.

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  • Cover The Girl and the Soldier
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    The Girl and the Soldier
    A book to read again and again
    Friesch Dagblad

    A small village behind the front, during World War I. While soldiers struggle to fight, life behind the front goes on. At the inn, where soldiers come to catch their breath, lives a blind girl. One day, she finds someone sitting on her bench: a black soldier, with the ‘scent of roasted nuts’.

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  • Cover Fifteen Wild Summers
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    Fifteen Wild Summers
    Poetic, vivid and full of harmonious images
    Die Zeit

    Thomas is dead, but three people can still see him: his inconsolable mother, his beloved Orphee and his dying grandfather. De Leeuw writes highly sensitive, keen prose with poignant images, and is painfully honest in showing that damaged, lonely people can be unreasonable and unkind, and that love can be an immense burden.

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  • Cover Cellar Child
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    Cellar Child
    An epic story about life and identity that is hard to put down
    De Morgen

    Kaspar Hauser has intrigued historians, writers and artists for centuries. Kristien Dieltiens has constructed a masterful novel around his life. 'Cellar Child' begins with an impressive scene that grips the reader and refuses to let go until the breathtaking finale 480 pages later.

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  • Photo Marian De Smet
    Photo Marian De Smet
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    Road to Nowhere
    A gripping and authentic tale of love, friendship, grief and loss
    NBD Biblion

    Eppo is taking a trip. Hitchhiking to France he is picked up by Tabby, who has her own reasons for leaving home. Tabby talks nineteen to the dozen; Eppo is an introvert. Through his eyes we join them on their journey, which has more to do with what lies behind them than with where they are going.

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  • Cover - I wish
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    I Wish
    Unusually beautiful and profound
    De Leeswelp

    'I wish' presents the reader with 33 portraits that take you back to a bygone age. Toon Tellegen wrote accompanying fragments of thoughts, little reflections with a philosophical character. 'I wish’ is a unique and personal document on ‘la condition humaine’, which reveals great sensibility. 

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    Over Sea
    Passion, brotherhood and betrayal make this book roar like the sea.
    NRC Handelsblad

    Nelen depicts wonderful and believable characters with her strong sense of atmosphere and observation. In her poetic style, which leaves a lot unsaid, she evokes a dreamlike, misty atmosphere, filled with vague longing, masterfully succeeding in creating an exciting story set against a fascinating historical background.

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  • Cover The Milky Way
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    The Milky Way
    An intimate story, written with wonderful tautness
    De Morgen

    ‘The Milky Way’ is an intimate story about growing pains, absence and transience. It is also about the thin line between fiction and reality, and inventing stories as a barrier against things that are too big and too scary. About wanting to stay small, but having to grow up.

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  • Cover Gallows Maid
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    Gallows Maid
    A real page-turner with innumerable surprising and thrilling twists
    De Standaard

    Nita Nomansdaughter is a late 16th century cutpurse. At the age of thirteen, she is sold to a travelling apothecary who swindles market-goers. Nita becomes proficient at her trade, until one day she is caught and sentenced to the gallows.

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  • Cover Frozen Rooms
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    Frozen Rooms
    Grief, caring, love, despair – the whole panorama impresses with its light tone.
    Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis jury

    As fifteen-year-old Jonas is eradicating all traces of his mother’s restless night, he discovers that she has committed suicide. He barely reacts at all, deciding to concentrate on the events of the day. With great verve, Jan De Leeuw succeeds in creating a sense of alienation, a concept that lies at the root of this cross-over novel. He pairs metafiction with seriousness and slapstick with sadness, all with flair.

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  • Cover I Think It Was Love
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    I Think It Was Love
    An extraordinary novel, told in words and sentences of the finest crystal
    De Standaard

    In the enlightened 18th century, Leon is abandoned and taken in by an uncaring foster mother. Méline, the daughter of the family, takes pity on the tough little boy and makes his hard life bearable. When she commits suicide, Leon knows there is only one thing he can do: live.

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  • Cover The Dog Eaters
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    The Dog Eaters
    A stunning young adult novel
    NRC Handelsblad

    'The Dog Eaters' describes the plight of ordinary citizens during WWI, as seen through the eyes of Victor, the epileptic 17-year-old son of a notary. With its mythical atmosphere and almost unbearable tension, this is an unforgettable novel for readers of all ages.

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  • Cover We All Want Heaven
    25,000 copies sold
    Cover We All Want Heaven
    25,000 copies sold
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    We All Want Heaven
    Majestic. A book like this is written once a decade at most.
    Dagblad van het Noorden

    1943. In rich and vivid language, Els Beerten maps out the hopes, dreams and desires of four friends, deftly capturing the blurring of the boundaries between good and evil, black and white. A moving and subtle portrayal of the darkest pages of our history. All of the characters follow their instincts and act in good faith. But what happens when the course you have chosen turns out to be the wrong one?

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  • Cover With a Sword in My Hand
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    With a Sword in My Hand
    Masterful
    Die Zeit

    The young aristocrat beautifully and convincingly portrayed in this book is Marguerite van Male, a girl of flesh and blood, a wayward, boyish, wild and eccentric child, constantly at odds with her authoritarian father. She cannot be forced to do anything and refuses to be corseted – literally and figuratively – by anyone.

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  • Cover red snow
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    Red Snow
    A powerfully written, enthralling epic
    De Leeswelp

    Hallgerd is born in the frozen North, a land of wolves and snow – and of kings who vie for power. One night, she loses everything she holds dear. After that night Hallgerd has only one thing on her mind: revenge. A brutal and gripping story of revenge, lust and love in the time of the Vikings.

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  • Cover - We two Boys
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    We Two Boys
    Masterful. Brilliantly evokes an important historical period
    De Leeswelp

    ‘We Two Boys’ begins in 1910 when the Flemish family De Belder is getting ready for their new future in the promised land, the United States of America. Eventually it is only the young Adrian, however, who makes it all the way to New York. Aline Sax sketches a lively and convincing portrait of New York City.

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  • Cover Dolores!
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    Dolores!
    Elpers’ narrative art is poetic and inventive.
    NRC Handelsblad

    Dolores grows up as a dwarf, in 15th century Biar in Spain. When she is five she realises she is different to other people. But she refuses to reconcile herself to limitations and glosses over her handicap with a generous dose of humour.

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  • Cover Kwaad bloed
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    Bad Blood
    A book about shock and shame, about the power of the imagination and about the longing for forbidden fruit
    De Morgen

    Marita de Sterck beautifully depicts the claustrophobic atmosphere of the strict boarding schools of yesteryear and the shame and secrecy surrounding menstruation and budding sexuality. Rhythmic sentences are bursting with sensual suggestion and thrilling secrets about the body, secrets that must not be spoken.

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  • Cover Lara & Rebecca
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    Lara & Rebecca
    Sensitive language and delicate treatment of emotions
    De Standaard

    A Creole plantation on the Mississippi, in Louisiana. Planter's daughter Lara and slave girl Rebecca grow up together and become bosom friends. Vereecken describes her characters with great subtlety and nuance. But the division between black and white, between slave and master, cruelly and irrevocably tears them apart. A profound and compelling novel.

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  • Cover Nightland
    Cover Nightland
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    Nightland
    Jan De Leeuw's book is unusual and surprising in equal measure.
    Gouden Uil Young Reader's Prize jury

    Fantasy and reality are combined in a mesmerizing fashion. Tension is built up and maintained throughout the book with skill and expertise, the plot remains exciting from the first page to the last, and there are a number of clever surprises built into the narrative. ‘Nightland’ is an exhilarating and layered literary work, which does not reveal all its secrets in a single reading.

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  • Cover The Whole Nine Yards
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    The Whole Nine Yards
    A gripping and plausible book, which excites, moves and compels the reader to think
    De Morgen

    Joppe and his fellow nursing students organise a mass demonstration against the war in Iraq. In the meantime, he tries to win the heart of the intriguing but independent Alya, but his sick great grandfather Tist throws a spanner in the works. De Sterck combines the stories of Tist and Joppe in a particularly tight composition, which results in an emotional attempt at reconciliation between three equally stubborn generations.

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  • Cover My Father Says We Save Lives
    winner DJLP
    Cover My Father Says We Save Lives
    winner DJLP
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    My Father Says That We Save Lives
    Extraordinary and intriguing
    De Morgen

    The nameless fifteen-year-old protagonist lives with her parents 'at the end of the world': on a hairpin bend that ends on an unfinished bridge. Drivers are regularly caught unawares by the bend in the road, and crash into the front of the house, where they are nursed back to health.

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  • Cover In the Shadow of the Ark
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    In the Shadow of the Ark
    A world that sizzles with activity and teems with life
    De Standaard

    In 'In the Shadow of the Ark' Anne Provoost takes her inspiration from the Biblical account of the Flood. Re Jana and her family leave the rising water levels of the marshes for the desert where it is rumoured that the largest vessel of all time is being built. The writer enthrals with a chronicle of quickly changing events in what is nevertheless a calmly developing story, with vivid scenes that appeal strongly to the imagination.

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  • Cover Brothers
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    Brothers
    Moeyaert proves without doubt that even a happy childhood can be a goldmine for a writer.
    De Volkskrant

    Bart Moeyaert is the youngest of seven brothers. His early years in his native city of Bruges were particularly happy and furnished him with an abundance of material for this much-praised autobiographical collection. In the forty-nine stories, humour, warmth and a sense of solidarity are prominent, but between the lines lies a far richer spectrum of emotions.

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  • Cover It's Love We Don't Understand
    20,000 copies sold
    Cover It's Love We Don't Understand
    20,000 copies sold
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    It's Love We Don't Understand
    I am well past fifteen years old, but I am glad that this book has come my way.
    Het Parool

    Through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old girl, we witness the life of a broken family over the course of three stories. In the first of the three we plunge straight into a fierce family quarrel. All survive intact. But the tone has been set. Bart Moeyaert deals with love in a sensitive and refreshing way, expertly unravelling its complexities while at the same time leaving its mystery intact.

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  • Cover The Rose and the Swine
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    The Rose and the Swine
    A masterpiece of the art of language
    De Standaard

    ‘The Rose and the Swine’ was inspired by ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and is a tribute to the primal force of the fairy tale. Provoost, a celebrated author for all ages, offers her readers works of the highest literary quality.

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  • Cover Bare Hands
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    Bare Hands
    There cannot be many writers as tough and sensitive as Bart Moeyaert.
    NRC Handelsblad

    A master of creating an oppressive atmosphere, Moeyaert succeeds in making his readers sense everything. There’s no air, there’s no escape, just an inevitable chain of events. In haunting and poetic prose, Bart Moeyaert displays his razor-sharp observation of the human psyche and the dangers of prejudice.

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  • Cover Falling
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    Falling
    'Falling' exhibits the traits of a classic tale of destiny.
    Woutertje Pieterse Prize jury

    Lucas is spending the summer with his mother in his grandfather’s house as he does every year. This year, however, everything is different: his grandfather died at Christmas and gradually tongues are beginning to wag about his war years. In a sober style and with atmospheric, detailed descriptions and convincing dialogue, Anne Provoost creates an extraordinarily oppressive feel to her novel.

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