Sjoerd Kuyper (b. 1952) made his writing debut in 1974 with a collection of poems for adults. He wrote various stories for television, among them Majesteit, Uw ontbijt (‘Your Breakfast, Sire’) and Het zakmes (‘The Pocket Knife’) which was also filmed and received fourteen awards, among them an Emmy. In 1994 he won a Silver Slate Pencil for Robin en Suze (‘Robin And Suze’), in 1995 he won another for Het eiland Klaasje (‘The Isle of Klaasje’). In 2012 he was awarded the Theo Thijssen Prize for his oeuvre. He is, he thinks, a writer who writes mostly about what he thinks, fears, feels, more than about what he himself has experienced. Kuyper writes in a style that is poetic, clear and vivid and enters with ease into the emotional world of young children.

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Books

2024-02-18T14:33:42+01:00

Bizar (Bizarre)

‘Every person is a story that in no way resembles the story of anyone else. By reading, you find out what other people think.’ Taking this idea as a starting point, Sjoerd Kuyper has written Bizarre, a unique diary adventure packed with beautiful sentences and important thoughts and in which the truth is at stake. In addition, through his unforgettable protagonist, he incidentally raises all kinds of major social issues. ‘There is absolutely no structure [...]

2023-03-26T20:23:39+02:00

Het zakmes

Het zakmes shows how deep children’s friendships can be. Mees and his friend Tim, both six years old, are in grade three. The day before Tim moves to Almere he shows Mees his new beautiful red pocket-knife in the schoolyard. Mees is even allowed to hold it for a moment. When the teacher, one of the strict old-fashioned kind who don’t like pocket-knives, comes close by, Mees quickly puts the knife in his pocket. Immediately [...]

2023-03-26T20:18:50+02:00

De duik

For this work of magical realism, Sjoerd Kuyper found inspiration on the island of Curaçao. He organised his thoughts in emails to his children, with songs, a monologue, a newspaper article. That was how the form of the book came about: ‘a love letter to the island of Curaçao, in 25 genres,’ as one reviewer wrote. The focus is on 11-year-old Roly and Mila. They are looking for Roly’s dad, who has disappeared. Run off [...]