Biographical note

Edward van de Vendel was born in Leerdam, The Netherlands (1964). He taught in primary schools before becoming a full-time writer in 2001. He writes novels for children and young adults, poetry, picturebooks, non-fiction and songlyrics, which are published at Querido’s publishing house (Holland) and De Eenhoorn (Belgium). His books have received many awards: Golden Kiss (Gouden Zoen/Gouden Lijst, best book for teenagers, x4), Silver Slate (Zilveren Griffel, best books for children, x8), Woutertje Pieterse Prijs (critic’s choice, x2), Children's Prize (Flanders, Belgium), the Prix Sorcières (France, best picture book) and the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis (Germany, best picture book). He has two nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2011/2012), and one for the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2018). Fleur van der Weel (b. 1970) is an illustrator and graphic designer. Her work has been honoured with awards including the prestigious Woutertje Pieterse Prize. She creates striking black-and-white illustrations of every animal imaginable, in the style of woodcuts. David Colmer is an Australian translator, writer and editor who lives in Amsterdam. He translates Dutch-language literature across a range of genres and has won several international prizes for his work. Recent translations include collections of the poetry of Menno Wigman and Charlotte Van den Broeck, and the classic novella An Untouched House by Willem Frederik Hermans. For The Emma Press he translated Super Guppy , a collection of poetry for children by Edward van de Vendel.