Netherlands

Favorite books from or about the Netherlands
C I T I N E R A R I E S | Books | Destinations | Europe | Netherlands
Amsterdam

A Little Trouble in Amsterdam
Cambridge Discovery Readers
Excerpt

Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
After World War II there is little left in Katje’s town of Olst in Holland. Her family, like most Dutch families, must patch their old worn clothing and go without everyday things like soap and milk. Then one spring morning when the tulips bloom “thick and bright,” Postman Kleinhoonte pedals his bicycle down Katje’s street to deliver a mysterious box—a box from America!

The Boy Who Held Back the Sea by Lenny Hort

A charming retelling of “Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates”

Coppernickel Goes Mondrian by Wouter van Reek
Mr. Quickstep is looking for the future. Coppernickel says you don’t need to, as the future will arrive anyway. But the future Mr. Quickstep is after hasn’t even been thought of yet. Left behind, Coppernickel worries that he will miss out if he doesn’t follow Mr. Quickstep, so he sets off to find the new future…

Coppernickel, The Invention by Wouter van Reek
When Coppernickel finds an empty page at the end of a book of inventions, he sets out to invent a machine for picking high-hanging elderberries. But his invention gets out of hand…

Curious Clara’s Amsterdam Adventures – A Sinterklaas Story
By Maike Mehlert and Ken Carroll
Illustrated by Rachelle Meyer
Clara’s second adventure set in a beautiful wintery Amsterdam.

cc_harry Curious Claras Amsterdam Adventures
How Harry Got His Memory Back
By Maike Mehlert and Ken Carroll
Join Curious Clara on her first Amsterdam adventure and find out how she helps her friend Harry the Heron to get his memory back.
Will life on the canal ever be the same?

Delft Blue – A Vase for the Princess

By Ingrid & Dieter Schubert

The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden
During World War II in the Netherlands, a ten-year-old boy’s dream of skating in a famous race allows him to help two children escape to Belgium by ice skating past German soldiers and other enemies.

Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes
Hana and her father used to love to walk in the garden and play their favorite game. But ever since tulip fever struck Holland, Hana’s father has been consumed by greed, and now he is too busy even to kiss her good night. It is up to Hana — with some help from a special family friend — to find a way to remind her father of what’s truly valuable. With stunning art reminiscent of Rembrandt, this tender tale illuminates the enduring love between father and child.

Jip and Janneke: Two Kids from Holland (including Sinterklaas)

Written by Annie M.G. Schmidt
Illustrated by Fiep Westendorp

Katje the Windmill Cat
by Gretchen Woelfle

Katje the Windmill Cat is based on a true story. The flood and the rescue really happened in Holland about six hundred years ago. I didn’t know who the real cat and real baby were, so I made up the characters and the family and the windmill part of the book. (I was writing my windmill book The Wind at Work so I had windmills on the brain.) After Katje was published in Holland, a Dutch man read the book, found my website, and emailed me to say that the story took place in his hometown of Dordrecht, and he knew who the baby was! Her name was Beatrice and her family still lives in Dordrecht. Hurray for the internet!

Look What Came From the Netherlands by Kevin Davis

Melanie Martin Goes Dutch
by Carol Weston

New York ten-year-old Melanie Martin, accompanied by her mum, brother and best friend fly to Amsterdam to discover everything from museum to topless beaches, as well as learning about Anne Frank and Van Gogh — fun and educational.

MIA MIA: Made in Amsterdam
By Maike Mehlert and Ken Carroll
Illustrated by Rachelle Meyer
A wonderful journey through the magical city of Amsterdam for both children and adults alike.

Rembrandt and Seventeenth-Century Holland

Another fine entry in the Masters of Art series that is coming to represent the very best in art books for young people. Pescio provides a panoramic view of 17th-century Holland as seen through the eyes of artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Frans Hals, as they developed their original styles of painting for the prosperous merchants of the great trading nation.

The Wind at Work: An Activity Guide to Windmills
by Gretchen Woelfle
The Wind at Work traces the history of windmills and how their design and function have changed over time. It includes more than a dozen wind-related activities such as conducting science experiments, cooking a traditional windmiller meal, sewing windmill patterns, and keeping track of household energy use. Information on how wind turbines (modern windmills) can produce energy as an alternative to nonrenewable fossil fuels is covered as well.