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
The Big L Hotel (Hotel De Grote L)
It’s the kind of day “for writing your name across the moon with a spray can”. Kos scores an impossible goal in front of a talent scout for the Ajax football team – and in front of Isabel, the most beautiful girl in the world. His dad is so overjoyed that he has a heart attack. From that point on, Kos seems to be the only one using his common sense – or at least [...]
De grote Robin
Last year, Sjoerd Kuyper won the Theo Thijssen Prize for his body of work as a children’s author. His stories combine readability with literary skill and depth. ‘Kuyper’s stories are real and vivid, philosophical and warm, rhythmic and balanced, nostalgic and humorous – sometimes all at the same time,’ said the jury for the Theo Thijssen Prize, reserving particular praise for Kuyper’s read-aloud stories about Robin. The dreamy young boy from a village beside the [...]
Sjaantje doet alsof
Sjaantje doet alsof by Sjoerd Kuyper and the multi-talented Daan Remmerts de Vries is a very colourful picture book, both literally and figuratively, and it may be classified within the genre of the ‘consolation fantasy’: in order to make life bearable, a young child unconsciously imagines a life peopled with characters who don’t exist or with loved ones who are no longer there. Little Sjaantje is precisely this kind of imaginative dreamer. All she needs [...]