‘The Children’s Book Week Gift 2022 was written by an Australian successful duo. Good choice? ‘There is so much talent in our own country’ De VolkskrantSeptember 29, 2022
‘Now Vera can be the teacher!’ Sigrid shouts. Sigrid has climbed on top of the table. And everyone looks up. ‘Why are we stopping now?’ Khadija asks. She doesn’t understand. They were just having so much fun playing. And she had come up with a nice task for everyone. Jesse was allowed in the dress-up box, Karolientje in the meat corner, Kees was allowed to use the thick book and Geert and Thierry had to stand in the corner with a large pointed hat on their heads. Khadija herself is sitting behind the table. She likes it very much behind the table. Everyone likes her sitting behind the table, she thought. ‘I want Vera to be the teacher now!’ Sigrid yells. It sounds so loud that Slack Gert has to cry. Weak Gert doesn’t like arguing. He prefers that no one ever argues. Then Sigrid points to Khadija. “She’s been the teacher all the time,” she says. And Sigrid is somewhat right about that. Khadija has been the teacher for quite some time. ‘Who’s voting for Vera?’ Sigrid yells across the room. No one dares to say anything anymore. And Vera is suddenly very nervous. She does want to be the teacher. She really wants it. But again not. But again. And Sigrid is her best friend. And she doesn’t want to disappoint them. She finds it all very complicated. But suddenly she also stands on the table. ‘Vera is the new teacher!’ Sigrid shouts. And then Vera is a little proud.
Miss Vera asks Jan whether he has indeed called Geert an oen. Jan has to think for a moment, but he thinks so. But he also thinks that Geert started and that you should not click. And Jan is right about that. ‘You are not allowed to click, Geert’, says teacher Vera. Geert can hardly understand her because of the noise. ‘I think you’re all super big dumbass!’ Thierry yells from the reading corner. But everyone thinks Thierry is an idiot. And so everyone is angry. It makes Miss Vera super nervous. When Khadija was the teacher, nobody did that. Jan walks towards her again. ‘Pepijn has made a drawing of Ernst with a very small square mustache under his nose,’ says Jan. And now Ernst is angry. Teacher Vera calls Pepijn to talk it out, but then Geert is suddenly in the middle of the room and he calls that Sophie is on Mark. Sophie turns all red. She likes someone, but definitely not Mark. ew. Esther raises her hand and asks if she can go into the animal corner. ‘No, no, we’re definitely not going to do that,’ Mrs Vera whispers. Esther doesn’t understand and walks to the animal corner. Miss Vera thinks that Esther should sit in her place. “Everyone needs to sit down!” Now everyone is angry again, because it was just a little fun again. ‘When I’m the master, I’ll cut everyone in half!’ Pepijn shouts from the meat corner. He has made a puppet out of frankfurters and sticks a pencil in it. Pippin laughs. Weak Gert has to cry. No one is having fun playing anymore.
Jan and Slappe Gert sat down next to each other. Jan thinks that Pepijn has acted very stupid and Slack Gert wants there to be no more quarrels in the whole world. But Pepijn thinks that Jan himself has also acted stupid and Pepijn is somewhat right about that, even though Pepijn has drawn a small mustache on Ernst. ‘It was just a lot more fun’, says Nilüfer. And Renske and Pieter and Esther agree with Renske. Miss Vera says that on the advice of the state attorney, she is having an external investigation conducted into Miss Khadija. Now Khadija gets angry again. Miss Vera actually doesn’t like being the teacher at all.