By Johanna McCalmont

September is not only WorldKidLit Month, it’s also the month when the spotlight is shone on YA books in the Netherlands.

This year the Dutch Boekenweek voor Jongeren runs from 18 to 27 September and aims to get young adults (15 – 18 years old) reading with the slogan Anything’s possible – in a book. A 2019 PISA survey of 15-year-olds in the Netherlands indicated that reading skills and the numbers of teens reading for enjoyment have declined in recent years. The Boekenweek voor jongeren strives to reverse this trend by inviting young adults to see books as a way to step into new worlds whenever and wherever they want – at school, out and about, or from the comfort of their sofa at home. The initiative comprises three main elements: the free collection of short stories 3PAK; the Literatour authors’ visits to schools; and the Prize for the Best YA Book.

3PAK

3PAK is a collection of short stories by four top Dutch authors. The anthology is given away free in bookshops, libraries and by Dutch studies teachers in schools. It includes texts by Daniëlle Bakhuis, a writer and editor at GIRLZ and CosmoGirl magazines whose YA thriller De Executie has been shortlisted for the Best YA Book prize in the Dutch books category this year. Pepijn Lanen, also known as rapper Faberyayo, has worked with comic book artist Floor van het Nederend on the second story in the collection, and the final text was written by Johan Fretz, nominated for the Bronzen Uil in 2019 and awarded the Dutch Booksellers prize in 2019 for his novel Onder de paramariboom.  

Literatour

During YA Lit Week, 23 well-known Dutch authors will tour 100 secondary schools to meet pupils and teachers and talk about books, writing, and reading in general. It will be fantastic opportunity for a total of 10,000 students to put questions directly to the these enthusiastic authors: Aafke Romeijn, Abdelkader Benali, Alma Mathijsen, Anne-Gine Goemans, Auke Hulst, Buddy Tegenbosch, Chinouk Thijssen, Cis Meijer, Daan Heerma Van Voss, Daniëlle Bakhuis (3PAK), Gershwin Bonevacia, Gustaaf Peek, Jennefer Mellink, Johan Fretz (3PAK), Jowi Schmitz, Khalid Boudou, Maartje Wortel, Marco Kunst, Maren Stoffels, Margje Woodrow, Neusa Gomes, Raoul De Jong, and Wytske Versteeg. The YA Lit week also supports schools by providing two 10-page booklets containing questions and pointers for discussing the short stories featured in 3PAK in class.

Best YA Book

At the end of May, an adult jury selected 10 books for readers aged 15-18, five in the ‘Originally published in Dutch’ category, and five in the ‘Translated’ category. A jury of YA readers has been working hard ever since to read and select the final winners which were announced on 17 September, the eve of the Boekenweek voor jongeren. The two winners each receive €2,500 each.

2020 Prize Winners and Shortlists

Dutch Book Category Winner

Nicolas en de verdwijning van de wereld (Nicolas and the end of the world) by Anne Eekhout (De Arbeiderspers)

Nicolas has read all of his Eagle comics a hundred times, enthralled by the superhero forever defeating supernaturally strong enemies. His father works a lot, and his mother has her own problems that often leave little time for Nicolas. One perfectly normal afternoon, some terrifying news breaks: a black hole is on its way to Earth and there’s an extremely high chance the Earth and everything around it will be wiped out. Nicolas, struggling to distinguish between fantasy and hope, decides to copy the Eagle and do everything he can to fend off disaster. But how do you save the world when you’re only eight years old?

The YA jury concluded: ‘This book is exciting, and often comes uncomfortably close to reality. All in all, Nicolas en de verdwijning van de wereld is stunningly original. The story really shows what fear can do to a person, and the consequences are horrific. It all hits home much harder because of the coronavirus crisis we’re going through right now. Nicolas en de verdwijning van de wereld grips you from the very first page and doesn’t let you go, something only a really good book can do. It makes it not only a beautiful, original, and hard-hitting book, but also one that’s perfect for young adults. It’s a true winner!’

Shortlisted Titles

 DE EXECUTIE (The Execution) by Daniëlle Bakhuis (Best of YA/Van Goor) 

Five teenagers are given one last chance to save themselves during a live TV show. Only one will escape. The other four will disappear when the floor beneath their cages opens up below them. The Collective decides who lives. Welcome to The Execution. Don’t miss this episode!

De geur van groen (The smell of green) by Pamela Sharon (Moon Young Adult)

Raaf is an ordinary 16-year-old girl who loves stories and is crazy about her best friend May-Lin. The only thing that’s different about her is that she’s blind. Thankfully May-Lin tells her what colours smell and feel like, creating a special world for the two friends. One day, however, Raaf’s world is turned upside down, and all the colours disappear. She’s forced to find her way in a world that has lost not only all its colour, but also all its appeal.

De Zwendelprins (The Mysterious Prince) by Rima Orie (Moon Young Adult)

In this fantasy novel, curious kitchenhand Simran hears all the juiciest gossip and rumours doing the rounds in the Maharaja’s palace. But there’s one story that has gripped both her and the rest of the Suryan population: the mysterious disappearance of the Crown Prince.

Twenty years’ after the Crown Prince’s disappearance, a prince from the cold and faraway Fengart turns up at the palace claiming he can find the Crown Prince. Simran is surprised when he asks her for a favour that will change her life forever. She’s always dreamed of discovering the world outside the palace, but can she really trust this prince? Or are his intentions less noble than they seem?

Land van dadels en prinsen (The land of dates and princes) by Frank Nellen (Hollands Diep)

After an argument with his father, fifteen-year-old Simon decides to spend the summer with his uncle who lives in a banlieue on the outskirts of Paris. He meets Youssef, an Algerian teenager with a sense of adventure. They quickly become inseparable as they climb buildings and rove over rooftops, higher and higher in their search for freedom. But when Simon accidentally discovers Youssef’s biggest secret, their friendship becomes strained. It’s not long before they drift apart, with fatal consequences for both themselves and others. The land of dates and princes is a story about friendship and betrayal, about terrorism, about the times in which we live, and about the difficult relationship that people with a migration background often have with the country in which they live.

Translated Book Category Winner

Darius de Grote is niet oké – Darius the Great is not OK

by Adib Khorram, translated from English by Tjalling Bos (Gottmer)

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. 

The YA jury noted: ‘The book Darius the Great is not OK takes readers on a journey to Iran and a journey in search of identity. It deals with depression, a topic that young people don’t talk about much. This book describes what it’s like to have to live with depression. Darius feels ashamed, for example, because he often feels down when he doesn’t seem to have a reason why he feels like that. This feeling also comes through in his identity struggle. It’s not only a fantastic book about culture and the search for an identity, it also reminds young people that they’re not the only ones struggling with their identity. Darius the Great is not OK really is a very well-written young adult book and therefore the deserving winner in this category.’

Shortlisted Titles

De bijzondere woorden van Gioia (Falling into happiness)

by Enrico Galiano, translated from Italian by Ada Duker and Henrike Herber (Luitingh-Sijthoff) Italian title Eppure cadiamo felici. Not yet available in English.

Her name means joy, however seventeen-year-old Gioia is anything but joyful. She doesn’t fit in at school, she’s not like the others. She doesn’t like fashion, following the crowd, or going to parties. One thing, however, makes her happy: her passion for collecting untranslatable words from across the world, like cwtch, a Welsh word that describes not just a simple hug, but a loving embrace that becomes a safe place. Gioia’s never told anyone about her true passion, they wouldn’t understand. Until the night she meets a boy called Lo. She begins to discover joy with Lo, but he has a secret that only Gioia can reveal.

Pans Labyrint – het labyrint van de faun

by Guillermo del Toro en Cornelia Funke, translated from German Esther Ottens (Querido).

Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun tr. Allen Williams By Bloomsbury Publishing

A dark fantasy novel complete with haunting illustrations and enchanting short stories that flesh out the folklore of this fascinating world portrayed in the original film. Readers are transported to a sinister, magical, and war-torn world filled with richly drawn characters like trickster fauns, murderous soldiers, child-eating monsters, courageous rebels, and a long-lost princess hoping to be reunited with her family.

Toffee

by Sarah Crossan, translated from English by Sabine Mutsaers (Kluitman)

Allison has run away from home and with nowhere to live finds herself hiding out in the shed of what she thinks is an abandoned house. But the house isn’t empty. An elderly woman named Marla, with dementia, lives there – and she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past called Toffee.

Vijf stappen van jou – Five Feet Apart

by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, translated from English by Karin Pijl (Volt)

Two teens fall in love with just one minor complication—they can’t get within a few feet of each other without risking their lives.

Johanna McCalmont is freelance translator and conference interpreter from Northern Ireland who is currently based in Brussels, Belgium. She works from French, German, Dutch and Italian into English. She was selected for the 2018 New Books in German Emerging Translators programme and she received a bursary from the Dutch Foundation for Literature to attend the BCLT 2020 Literary Summer School with Michele Hutchison. Her work has also been featured in No Man’s Land. You can follow her on Twitter @jo_mccalmont