Prize-winning illustrator Marijke Klompmaker finds her freedom thanks to a packed viewing and searching book

Marijke Klompmaker is bothered by mice. And not just them, all users of the draughty studio complex on Travertijnstraat in Groningen. Don’t leave any leftover food behind, is the advice on an alarmist note in the hallway of the former school building. What can also help in cases like this is a cat.

In the new picture book by illustrator Klompmaker, Where is Polle Poes? , a cat is being sought. Not to combat mice, although there are plenty of them, but because it is dinner time. The main character Nova has forgotten that. It makes her feel guilty and she goes looking, rattling a box of cat biscuits. First at home, then at the neighbors, then further down the street.

Klompmaker (Buitenpost, 1964) worked on her book for two years. Not 24/7 x 52 x 2, but most of the time, in addition to the assignments and requests she fulfills for her living. Now I want to make something without someone else’s text, without a deadline, she had said to her publisher. She got the space she wanted.

Silver Brush for ‘ Everything that was

She was also in the newspaper two years ago. Then because she had won a Silver Brush with her illustrations Everything that was , a book by philosopher Stine Jensen that tells readers aged 8 and older about saying goodbye. Anyone who looked closely at the accompanying newspaper photo at the time could already see the first drawing by Nova and Polle Poes: a girl pulling a cart with a pet.

That drawing still hangs on the wall of her studio. But where is the won brush? “At home in a cupboard,” says Klompmaker. “It’s my only trophy, I had never won anything before. Very nice to receive a prize for once. There are so many illustrators to choose from. The competition is fierce. And I’ve been at it for a really long time.”

Looking back, the spin-off of the prize was a bit disappointing for her. “I had hoped that I would be swamped with work,” she says. ,,The contrary. It seemed as if people thought: ‘He has become very expensive, he is so busy, we shouldn’t ask him.’ Another Brush winner had the exact same experience. Very strange.”

Own project, more artistic work

On the other hand, the prize has strengthened her in another way. “It really feels like recognition. That you are seen, that what you do is worthwhile,” she says. “I have been planning to make something completely for myself for some time now. After winning the Brush, it became easier to do your own project and work more artistically.”

Where is Polle Poes? is a look and find book, a separate genre in the picture book world, with its own shelf in the better bookstores. Unlike most search books, Klompmaker’s does not consist of a collection of loose prints around one or more themes, but rather a story with several lines.

The search is not simply for a cat, but also a visit is made to a street with several houses. Where different families live with different activities, all of which raise questions. Like, with the gaze of an adult: what a strange perspective, those houses aren’t falling over, what a mess it is there, what’s going on there?

Children see details, adults look for big picture

“When I was at art school, I learned to draw as it should be,” Klompmaker responds. “I had to make a lot of effort to get rid of that way of working. When I make something for myself, for fun, it is my world. Things can happen there as I want. I love messy. Where I grew up it was a real mess sometimes. Delicious. You always take something from home with you.”

Where is Polle Poes? should be read with a child, Klompmaker advises. “Only then do you notice what has been put into such a book. Children see details, while adults look more for the big picture and then browse through. Children take their time, while adults are rushed. Children do not look with a judging eye like adults, but can still be really gripped by a story.”