Mandy works overtime during children’s book week: “I want to convey the pleasure of reading”

47-year-old Mandy only started writing children’s books a few years ago. She has now made four and the fifth, for young adults, is finished. It’s about a boy who loses his mother. His father is a clown and to support his father he becomes a clown and they perform together. That doesn’t end well in the end.

Dog Jip

She often doesn’t have to go far for inspiration. The stories are literally there for the taking. For example, about her dog Jip: ‘Hop, in the soap’. “Jip was always dirty. He would roll over a dead fish in the park and he would have scales all over his back. Very dirty.” The dog sits perkily on the office chair and listens stoically. “That wasn’t very nice, was it Jip,” says his owner, but he doesn’t move an inch. The book is about how the owner of the dirty dog ​​comes up with all kinds of ways to get and keep him clean.

Mandy has now written the book ‘Ten minute stories’ for children aged 5 to 7. “You have to take into account that the children do not yet know the entire alphabet. Quite difficult.” The drawings are by the Flemish Ann de Bode. A dog and a cat also play a role here. Together with their young owners they experience all kinds of adventures in the neighborhood. Mandy doesn’t find it difficult to make up stories for such young children. “You start from the child within yourself and then you know that it is good”

Poetry

Mandy also loves poetry. She has been the city poet of Zaanstad in the past and also teaches poetry at schools. “That’s what a teacher says: ‘Can you also rap? Because those children don’t like poems’. Then I answer: ‘No, I can’t rap and I don’t want to because I want to show them how much fun it is. it is to be able to write poetry.”

At the ‘Letter Festival’ in Purmerend during the autumn holidays, Mandy gives a poetry workshop for children. On Tuesday 24 and Thursday 26 October at the Waterland Library locations.