Sebastiaan Van Doninck wins Boekenpauw Award 2020

The Boekenleeuw and the Boekenpauw, annual awards for the best-written and most beautifully illustrated Dutch-language children’s books respectively, were presented to the winners yesterday. Sebastiaan Van Doninck won the Boekenpauw for The Fantastic Flying Competition, which was written by Tjibbe Veldkamp.

The book is about a wacky race between all kinds of birds in the craziest flying machines, each trying to be first over the finish. In its report, the jury wrote: “The illustrator clearly enjoyed himself immensely. It’s a dazzling book in which every single picture is a wonderful creation in its own right, and in which you can always find something new. The book is an ode to the imagination, in a perfectly orchestrated chaos that’s both exciting and funny. It features fantastic aircraft and animals bursting with character in a delightful, aerial menagerie full of colour and action."

The British publishing firm Tate, which is affiliated with the famous Tate Gallery in London, has meanwhile bought the English rights to ‘The Fantastic Flying Competition’.

The Boekenleeuw was awarded to the Dutch author Bette Westera for Breaking Up. The prize money is 2,500 euros.