The Chameleon

The adventures of the Frisian twin brothers Sietse and Hilke in their boat ‘The Chameleonare still read today. The first 60 parts were written by Hotze de Roos. The following parts are by Piero Stanco and Fred Diks. There are now no fewer than 71 different titles.

The mischievous twins

The book series ‘The mischievous twins‘ is about twins, Ellis and Thelma Bongers, who have all kinds of adventures. They have two brothers, Lex and Leo (also twins), who are called Loe-Loe by their older sisters. The dog Spekkel and their cat Bengeltje appear in many of the stories. The first books were written by Arja Peters, after her death the series was continued by other authors.

Sniff the Dog

The books about Sniff the dog were so popular that several films were later made about it. The book series ‘Snuf de hond’ was written by Piet Prins, starring the shepherd dog Snuf and his owner Tom Sanders. Snuf, Tom and his friends go on adventures together.

Jip and Janneke

Today almost every child still grows up with the stories of Jip and Janneke. Annie MG Schmidt started writing short stories about the two neighbor children in the newspaper Het Parool in the 1950s, and the first collection was published in 1953. Besides Jip and Janneke, the dog Takkie and the cat Siepie are important figures. Many of the stories are set in or around the home of one of the two children.

Pietje Bell

Pietje Bell is a Rotterdam shoemaker’s son. Because of the clumsy and naive way in which he tries to help others, he constantly gets himself and the people around him in trouble. He is known for the youth of today from the films about his mischief, but we will mainly know Pietje Bell from the many books written about him by Chris van Abkoude. The first book is from 1914.

Dick Trom

The first book in the series about Dik Trom, ‘From the life of Dik Trom‘, written by C. Joh. Kieviet, was first published in 1891. Many of us will have read or at least recognize this book, but it took eight years for the first printing to sell out. After that it became such a success that films about Dik Trom were made from 1937 to 2018.

From Bob, Bep and Brammetje

From Bob, Bep and Brammetje, written by WG van de Hulst, was published in 1921. Bob, Bep and Brammetje have to bring strawberries to grandmother, but once in the woods they find it much more fun to play together. Meanwhile, a thunderstorm breaks out and they take shelter with an old lady.

Pinky

Pinky is a children’s book series by the writer Dick Laan. The first book, ‘The Adventures of Pinkeltje’, was published in 1939. The story is about a fictional man called Pinkeltje: a person as big as a little finger. Pinkeltje had a white beard and a pointed hat, but he was no gnome.

Gold-Elsje

Gold-Elsje was a funny, smart and friendly girl of about 15 years, who loved to read and write and dreamed of a job between the books. Ten books appeared in the Protestant-Christian series about Goud-Elsje, written by Max Praamsma, with titles such as ‘Gold Elsje gets engaged‘, ‘Goud-Elsje bears a double name‘ and ‘It’s still spring for Goud-Elsje‘. The first book came out in 1932 and was intended for older girls.

eagle eye

eagle eye is a children’s book series written by Jan Nowee and later by his son Paul Nowee. Bob Stanhope or Arendsoog, is the son of an American rancher in Arizona. As a child, he must witness his father being shot by robbers, which later motivates him to devote his life to fighting crime. Eagle Eye owes its nickname to its particularly sharp eyes; he is known for seeing very well in the dark.