sometimes troublesome or unreasonable. In other words, he drew an image of children
and adults which had only previously been found in adults’ literature; in children’s
books, and especially in books for young children, conflicts had been more concealed.
Wim Hofman (b.1941) began with an absurdist fairy tale, and has alternated between
light-hearted fantasy and realism. De Stoorworm [The Disturbing Worm] (1980), in which
a friendly monster accidentally causes a flood, appears to be pure fantasy. However, it was
inspired by memories of the flood of 1953, a theme returning in Het Vlot (1988) [The
Raft, 1994], in which Hofman described his childhood years in Flushing (Zeeland), after
the Second World War. So, the border between fantasy and reality may not be as strict as
it appeared to be: both belong to the same world, shaped by Hofman in a lively language
and ‘primitive’, child-like pictures, showing the influence of the painters from the Cobra
group.
The popular genre of children’s books dealing with the German occupation of The
Netherlands during the Second World War, was renewed by the appearance of books
based upon autobiographical facts, written by authors who were children at that time.
An example is a book by Els Pelgrom (b. 1934): De kinderen van het Achtste Woud (1977)
[The Winter when Time was Frozen, 1980), describing the experiences of an 11-year-old
girl during her evacuation in the last year of the occupation. It has an almost idyllic
character: the child from the city experiences her stay at a farm as a long holiday.
However, the war is always present in the background, and sometimes it comes grimly
close.
Pelgrom also attracted much attention with Kleine Sofie en Lange Wapper (1984) [Little
Sophie and Lanky Flop, 1987), which relates the dreams of a little girl, who is terminally
ill. In those dreams, symbolising her situation in reality, she performs a play in a
cardboard toy theatre, together with her dolls, about ‘What life has to offer’. This book,
greatly appreciated by the critics, is considered one of the highlights of Dutch children’s
literature in the 1980s.
After 1980: The Literary Emancipation of Children’s LiteratureLooking back, we can say that the pressure groups of the 1970s did not have a lasting
influence; the emphasis on social themes has disappeared, and in the 1980s critics
began to pay more attention to literary aspects of the books.
One of the most remarkable young authors is Joke van Leeuwen (b.1952): a very
individual and playful talent. She illustrates her books herself, with smooth transitions
from words to pictures, using letters in all kinds of handwriting or even in code, rebuses
and other mysterious elements, which challenge the reader in an attractive way. Her
books are full of surprises: every word may have an association which leads to a story
within the story. These features symbolise what seems to be the central theme of her
work: a child being baffled in a world which has become self-evident for adults. High
points in her work have been Deesje [Daisy] (1985) and Het verhaal van Bobbel die in een
bakfiets woonde en rijk wilde worden (1987) [The Story of Bobble who Wanted to be Rich,
1990].
Toon Tellegen (b. 1941) has published five collections of surprising, short stories
about animals. In the wood he has created, only one specimen is found of every species;
706 THE NETHERLANDS