Belgium
(Dutch)
221
Franck, Ed (text)
Schamp, Tom (illus.)
Mijn zus draagt een heuvel op haar rug (My sister carries a hill on her back)
Averbode : Uitg. Altiora, 2000 – [75pp]
ISBN 90-317-1550-6
Disabled person - Suicide
The first-person narrator, a boy between the age of 8 to 10, thinks a lot about his little
sister: Why does she suddenly start crying? And why she is so often so desperately furious
that she has to disappear for a while? His sister is humpbacked. Even though he doesn't
consider the hump an infirmity, he fantasises about it. With boundless naiveté he
protects his sister against angry words and against herself. One day, his sister has
disappeared – to the only place where she can be happy. The intimate colour
illustrations and a sophisticated composition complement the story. This is not an easy,
but a very honest book; no attempt is made to simplify the young narrator's very mature
thoughts. (10+)
Special Mention
222
Sollie, André (text)
Cotteleer, Erika (illus.)
En alles is echt waar (And everything is real)
Wielsbeke : Uitg. de Eenhoorn, 2000. – [32pp]
ISBN 90-5838-022-x
Loneliness - Fear - Life - Children's poetry
What is life like when you are a child? You simply say »I am the gardener« and then you
really are one. Sollie's poems in this poetry-picture book are of a moving simplicity. At
once comprehensible to everyone and playfully incomprehensible, they pay tribute to the
imagination of young children and their associative ways of thinking. The illustrations
present little miniatures, in which no brushstroke is too much or too little. The colours
are chosen very carefully. Text and illustrations collaborate in a poetic, imaginary play:
A teddy bear turns into a man and a doll into his wife. The bed is a dune, the gate a
door, the sky a roof. Imagination and reality mingle, but seen through the eyes of a
child, everything is real. A very special picture book about loneliness, longing, work,
fear, reconciliation, and love. (5+)
223
Vandewijer, Ina
Witte pijn (White pain)
Leuven : Davidsfonds/Infodok, 2000. – [106pp]
(Davidsfonds/Infodok jeugdboek)
ISBN 90-6565-971-4
Inuit - Family - Grandfather
Together with his grandfather, Tim is travelling through the land of the Inuit, the
Indians from the high North of Canada. Tim has grown up in Montreal, far away from the
desolate snowfields. Tim admires his grandfather's talent for survival in the snowstorms
and the cold. This novel is an impressive debut, in which the life, the culture, and the
habits of the Inuit, like hunting seals, nose rubbing, building igloos, slurping fat and
always telling stories, are very well represented. The relationship between Tim and his
grandfather is described in a very subtle and carefully sensitive tone. A warm story about
the solidarity with family and nature. (13+) <> (Knokke-Heist Prize [Youth Book]; 2000)